Split On The Precipice - Spit On A God's Grave
by annabellejones712
Summary: Naruto has been alone for his entire life. No one has stuck up for him or helped him except the Third. When the bell test comes to play, Naruto tries to help his so called 'teammates'. But abuse after abuse on him riles up his protector to whom teamwork is everything. Kakashi can't stand teammates abusing one another and takes action. Smart!Naruto; O.O.C.; AU.
1. Bell Test

_**MINI RANT SO READERS CAN UNDERSTAND THE STORY:**_

 _ **I don't understand why Kakashi allowed for Sakura to keep hitting and demeaning Naruto. Isn't that physical abuse or something? And Sakura and Sasuke to demean Naruto through what I see as practically verbal abuse? I thought Kakashi would have stopped them because IT LITERALLY SAYS IN THE NARUTO WIKI:**_ "An abuse of one's teammates is the only thing that can makes Kakashi cast aside his normally stoic demeanor, causing him to attack without mercy or his usual sense of sportsmanship." **_Which means he should have totally kicked their asses for that because they were a team. I would have. I claim that as abuse and here is where it takes me._**

 ** _This is AU, some OOC and I do not own Naruto._**

 ** _Please review._**

* * *

He watched them during the test, serious watching. They were all hiding quite well for now, including Naruto. The blond had even taken off his favorite orange jacket top and hid it, showing a worn and slightly too big, dark blue mottled shirt. Naruto was actually pretty thin under the bulky jacket. He believed Naruto didn't have any regular shorts on under the thick orange pants, which was why he didn't hide them as well. However, the first thing Naruto _had_ done afterwards was sneak to an area thick with mud and blot his pants with it, giving him a better chance at hiding. Interested, Kakashi went to check on the other brats.

* * *

Naruto had listened as hard as he could without enhancing his hearing with chakra and barely heard his silver haired sensei's footsteps. He'd finished with his pants which ensured he might have a better chance. _'What's the deal with two bells? He couldn't have been serious. Jiji wouldn't allow two man cells - it's not possible. All genin teams he's done paperwork on - and I've been allowed to look at - show that there are only three man cells until chunin. What the hell's he testing us on then?'_ The blond thought hard as he flickered through the trees to a quick hiding space, fingering a kunai.

As he sat to catch his breath among thick branches in an oak, he thought harder. _'And he wants us to fight him...to come with the intent to kill. As a jounin, he'd slaughter us. But...as a complete cell...'_ He trailed off, eyes wide. _'Holy shit! They are not fucking serious! It's teamwork?! Kami! Those people will never work with me! Especially Sasuke-teme! And Sakura-chan hates me!'_ With a low huff, he focused on his hearing, settling chakra into his ears.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun! Where are you?!" The faint sounds of Sakura-chan's voice sounded from north of his position, around three miles. Then, he listened for Sasuke-teme. He hardly heard the teme's breathing north-west of him, about half a mile from Sakura-chan. And Kakashi-sensei's footsteps were close to them. Immediantly creating four clones, he said,

"1A and 1B, attack Kakashi-sensei - intent to kill. 1C, scout out the area around Sakura-chan. 1D, do the same for the teme. Do not attempt contact with either classmate. Keep out of sight but watch and if Kakashi-sensei finds them, instantly dispel." The blond clones nodded swiftly and then shot towards the trio. Naruto had picked up various things from being in jiji's office, including the way he talked to his jounin, chunin and ANBU on a daily basis. It was short, to the point and commanding. Taking a calming breath, he decided to circle around to Sasuke-teme's area.

Jumping to the ground, he was running the instant he hit the ground. Around a quarter of a mile away from Sasuke, he heard the clashing of kunai and he gained the memories of 1A and 1B. They had fought hard and nearly nicked the jounin more times then he could count. A stray kunai had cut Kakashi-sensei's flak jacket, but hadn't gone deeper than his shirt. A shuriken had made a nick on the man's temple. Dirt and a footprint now covered Kakashi-sensei while his 1A clone had taken kunai and shuriken to the chest, throat and head after showing his true intent to aim for the vitals.

1B clone had been pulled up to his neck in the dirt by his sensei grabbing his calf and yanking down - a strange earth jutsu called Headhunter and a kunai had gone through his forehead to end it. Naruto ran harder, forcing more chakra into his legs. _'Screw Sasuke. I'll grab Sakura and then get him.'_ He summoned twelve clones. "Immediantly - intent to kill. Find jounin-sensei Kakashi and buy time. Slow him down as long as you can!" He snapped. "Keep them away from Sakura, Sasuke and I!"

The clones shot off as fast as they could, determined looks on their faces. Naruto had the clones around Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme dispel. Adding more chakra, Naruto could smell Sakura's flower perfume she wore for Sasuke. He caught sight of Sakura's pink hair and snapped, "Sakura!" She whirled around, surprised as he skidded to a halt beside her.

"Naruto! Have you seen -"

"-I'm going to get him next! We have to go - now! Kakashi-sensei's coming and we need to grab the teme! Come on!" The pink haired girl glared at him, her green eyes suspicious.

"Is this just a plot to try and kiss me? You know I like Sasuke-kun! And he's not a teme, you baka!" He winced as she slapped him on the back of his head hard.

"I'm not! I swear! Just please! I'm going to find Sasuke-teme next!" He winced again as his headache throbbed, she wacked him again at calling Sasuke a teme and he got three clone memories. The clones were getting thrashed hard and Kakashi-sensei was starting to frown through his mask at the clones that were still fighting and aiming to kill. Which was NOT good. "Just come on!" Naruto barked, gripping her wrist and jogging fast. She yelped as she was dragged along.

"NARUTO! LET ME GO YOU BAKA! I'LL FIND SASUKE-KUN MYSELF! LET GO NOW!" She wriggled and Naruto ran faster, now tracking the teme by scent. _'Damn! Kakashi-sensei is kicking the clones asses! I'll need to send more. The teme should be here in about ten feet.'_ Dropping Sakura who dizzily wobbled for a second before hitting him again, Naruto narrowed his eyes shakily as six clones memories appeared.

"Sasuke! Come out! I know why we're doing this!" He called. Then, the blond turned and created thirty clones. Sakura gaped in surprise and was about to start yelling when Sasuke came out of the bushes. Ignoring him, Naruto barked, "Buy time for us from Kakashi-sensei! Stall for as long as possible any way possible!" The clones brought out kunai and raced back the way that Naruto and Sakura had just come. Sakura squealed,

"Sasuke-kun!" She ran up to the black haired, dark eyed Uchiha and looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?!" Naruto turned to them.

"Dobe. How did you do that?" Sasuke asked sharply, clearly interested - and ignoring Sakura-chan. Shaking his head, Naruto said,

"I can't tell you. You'd have to ask Jiji - the Hokage." He clarified. Sasuke snorted.

"As if you would get something from the Hokage, dobe. You can't even get a passing grade. Now tell me." A kunai sailed past his ear, nicking it. Naruto held back his slightly shocked gaze. _'Did he just try to brain me?'_ Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"I'm serious. You'd have to ask the Hokage. I'm not allowed to tell." Sakura glared, angered apparently at the fact he wouldn't talk.

"You're lying! Tell Sasuke-kun, Naruto! You're too dumb to get anything that important from the Hokage!" Naruto hissed as clones by the fives died. Kakashi-sensei was getting closer.

"We don't have time for this! I know why we're doing this test, you damn teme! Why won't you just listen?!" Sakura gave an enraged shriek at Naruto's name calling and slapped him before punching him in the head, making him stagger. Sasuke sneered at him.

"As if you would know, dobe. You're worthless. You probably cheated. Even that mutt Kiba is smarter than you, dobe." He flicked another kunai at him and it sliced Naruto's shoulder. Naruto ignored it. Being beaten by the villagers was a hell of a lot worse than a simple slash.

"Shut up! I know what it is! It's teamwork! Do you _ever_ see two man cells in Konoha? No! It -" A shuriken hit him in the arm, blood welling onto his arm and dripping onto the ground. Surprised, Naruto clutched his arm and narrowed his eyes, pulling the shuriken from his arm as Sasuke talked.

"-Teamwork? A team will only slow me down. It makes you weak. Although I doubt you can get any weaker." The dark haired Uchiha mocked coldly, Sakura smirking at him. He ignored them as he felt the rest of his clones die. _'Shit!'_ He pushed down the urge to summon some clones to kick the teme's ass. _'It's about teamwork.'_ He stressed to himself.

"Kakashi-sensei's coming!" Sakura instantly looked around, a worried expression on her face. Her green eyes flitted to Sasuke, who seemed to be listening sharply to something. Then the Uchiha nodded.

"Sasuke-kun? What -"

"Go hide somewhere. I don't care. I'm getting a bell. I'm not failing because of a dobe too stupid to understand the meaning 'Get the bell and attack with killing intent'." Sakura nodded, sneered at him and ran to hide. Sasuke turned and went to his own place. Naruto watched in hopelessness as his supposed team left him. _'I'm never going to be Hokage.'_ He grimaced, but decided to hide and watch.

He enhanced his ears and nose after swathing himself in branches. Using a kunai, Naruto cut up the long bottom of his slightly-too-long shirt to wrap up his arm and dab at his ear. His head was throbbing but slowly going away. He knew his cut would go away soon, but he still needed it to be wrapped up in case of infection. Sakura's breathing was quiet but the teme's was even quieter. Kakashi-sensei was here.

Naruto was instantly alert, watching the closest movements carefully. Suddenly, there was a heavier presence near Sakura. Naruto was up and sprinting toward her as fast as he could. He heard a loud scream in front of him and he was there, Sakura fainting onto the dirt and leaves. He listened and then lunged forward in a steep roll as a kunai hit the place he was standing before. Cursing, he flung two kunai back in the direction it came from.

"Naruto-kun. Trying to kill me with clones is not funny." The man sounded very slightly annoyed. Very slightly annoyed, but annoyed still. He inwardly cringed.

"Hey! I needed a distraction! And _you_ said intent to kill! _You_ said it!" Naruto grumbled back, hoping the silver haired jounin wasn't going to bet the absolute shit out of him too badly. Suddenly, there was a faint rumble under the ground and he realized it felt familiar. _'Where...my clone! That Headhunter jutsu!'_ He went to jump when a wire wrapped around his leg from the ground to keep him stuck and then a second later, Kakashi-sensei grabbed his leg and yanked him up to his neck in dirt. Growling under his breath in anger and a bit of pain as his cut arm was jolted, he looked up at the jounin.

"I know what I said, Naruto-kun. But sending thirty or forty clones in a huge group is a pain. Telling them to stall in any damned way possible is even more difficult and a bit ridiculous. They were doing the craziest things, including trying to set pranks, blind me and actually aiming for my vitals." The blond looked down at the dirt. He'd gone too far in telling the clones that, but he'd felt the instinct of being hunted - the same instinct he felt when on the streets of Konoha on his birthdays when the villagers were trying to tear him apart and this time it was double because of his classmates. He'd done the worst thing a shinobi could do: panic.

Naruto set his lips and stared at the ground while Kakashi stared at him. He wouldn't apologize, but he was going to get better at not panicking in a spar situation. "I'll be back." The jonin said, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. There was a dull groan and Sakura sat up, clutching her head tightly, her pink hair messy and woven with twigs.

"S-Sasuke-kun..." She whispered, before she began frantically looking around. When her eyes settled on him, she looked confused. "Naruto? What are you doing here? Where's Sasuke-kun?" Naruto shrugged or tried to at least.

"I don't know where the Uchiha is. All I heard was you wailing and I ran over and you had fainted, Sakura-chan. The teme wasn't anywhere near here." She glared at him, tossing a rock at his head which sliced his forehead.

"DON'T CALL HIM A TEME, YOU DOBE! HE'S WORTH A HUNDRED OF YOU!" Sakura snapped, getting up and stomping angrily at him. Naruto winced. She was going to kick him. _'Fuck. I'm actually going to have a concussion this time.'_ Sakura lashed out and Naruto cringed, waiting for the hit. With her strength, it was going to be painful. Suddenly, he felt a breeze blow by him, but no pain.

Opening his eyes from their scrunched position, he turned to look at what had happened. He gaped openly. It was Kakashi-sensei. He had his back to Naruto, tightly gripping Sakura-chan's leg in a very painful way. At least, it looked painful because her face was wrinkled and she whimpered a tiny bit, and looked very, very close to losing her balance - or maybe her leg.

"I don't approve of teammates abusing each other, Haruno-san." And Naruto wanted to curl up in the hole. Kakashi-sensei sounded like ice and darkness. He sounded cold. And he radiated something - something that made his instincts scream to hide. He realized it was true KI - Killing Intent, that their sensei was leaking and it was all directed at Sakura-chan. She had sweat drip down her forehead and she was trembling heavily, breathing heavily too. "This test is over." The jounin said, slamming Sakura-chan onto the ground where she coughed and huddled, eyes wide.

Then, Naruto flinched as Kakashi walked over to him and got him from the earth jutsu, inspecting him with an icy gray eye. KI was useful against enemies but right now it was just downright scary. Naruto rubbed his wounded arm and the silver haired jounin tossed him a roll of bandages and antiseptic ointment. He barely caught what was tossed to him, eyes wide with shock. _'Did he just...?'_ Still leaking that horrible KI, Kakashi walked out of the small clearing. _'He probably went to find Sasuke-teme.'_ Naruto thought, before taking off his makeshift bandage and wiping down his gash with the ointment.

He ignored the faint sting and unrolled a strip of bandage, wrapping his arm loosely. There was the sound of metal and then fire and earth and then there was cursing and then a black haired blur crashed heavily through a tree branch, spraying bark and leaves. Sakura's head snapped up and she looked like she wanted to run to him, but she ended up scooting over a couple of paces before stopping and whimpering again as she caught sight of their silver haired jounin sensei. Glancing at Sasuke, Naruto noted there were kunai in his shoulder and leg and dirt around various bleeding cuts and slashes.

Sasuke had a gash on his temple and a black eye. It was almost funny if he hadn't remembered he'd gotten beat up by Kakashi and that could've happened to him. The teme huffed, wheezing as he got up and half snarled at Kakashi-sensei who flickered out KI at the Uchiha. Sasuke froze, eyes wide as he felt the icy pressure and staggered back, nearly falling on his ass. "Sasuke." The gray eyed Uchiha glared at him. "The test is over. Attempt to attack me and you will be attacking a jounin - which brings out harsh penalties, even if you are the 'last' of your Clan."

"Tch." Sasuke spat a bit of blood on the ground, but remained where he was. Naruto's lips twitched. _'At last the bastard isn't getting special treatment.'_ He thought as Kakashi narrowed his eye at Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto watched all of them carefully.

"Do you know that the abuse of teammates is something that I don't tolerate?" Kakashi asked them coldly, still staring at the pink haired girl and black haired boy. Sasuke sneered and stood straight. Sakura glanced up at him, green eyes still holding a hint of fear.

"What are you talking about? And they are _not_ my teammates."

"Good. Because you aren't training with them anyways. Neither is Sakura-san training. You never passed my test and you abused your teammate who tried to help you and because you rejected his help, he spent precious chakra trying to stall me when he didn't need to. You both are going to go be tossed out of the shinobi program." Both named kids stared wide eyed at the jounin. Sakura nearly started to cry and looked like she wanted to start screaming, but apparently thought better of it and hid her face in her hands.

On the other hand, Sasuke's face grew dark and wildly angry. He spat more blood and yanked a kunai out of his shoulder, hefting it in his hand.

"Who are you to tell me no? The council will be angry if you don't. You could get - " Naruto glowered at the Uchiha, not listening to the black haired boy's rant. _'He's a prick and a crybaby. Doesn't he know that the Hokage makes the decisions?'_ Sasuke-teme had apparently stopped part of his temper tantrum to breathe and was starting his rant again and was also getting ready to throw the kunai. Kakashi-sensei just looked bored.

Finally, Naruto had enough. "Shut the hell up, teme!" The blond grumbled, showing his teeth to the Uchiha. "Who gives a damn what the council says? This isn't a democracy! The Hokage's law and word is final. The council are only advisors - not another section that makes decisions. I thought you were smart, teme? Maybe it's just all the ass-kissing you get finally's got to your brain." Naruto threw his own sneer at the other boy.

The kunai was tossed at him with lightning speed. He went to dodge it - and found he didn't need to. Kakashi-sensei had gotten in front of him and caught the kunai. Sasuke was there instantly, tossing aimed shuriken and kunai at the pair. All of them were deflected and tossed away. Sakura gave a cry as one nearly speared through her head and she took it as a point to get behind a tree to hide.

There was a flick of hand seals and then the rain of weapons stopped with the sound of electricity and screaming. Naruto peered around Kakashi to see what had happened. He stared wide eyed at what he saw. Sasuke was on the ground, writhing as thick wires tied around him and lightning crackled as it flowed around the wires and Sasuke. The point of origin was Kakashi's hands. Naruto watched as the black haired Uchiha received burns that blackened flesh and screamed himself hoarse on the dirt. Kakashi-sensei's eye was blank, as if he didn't care what happened to Sasuke and Naruto realized the jounin might not.

"Kakashi-sensei." He said, looking up at the man. "You need to stop. I think he's going to die. I don't think you want 'Killed the last Uchiha' on your record." At first, he wondered if his sensei had heard him, but then the lightning sputtered and then stopped completely, vanishing in a flicker of light. Naruto gave a faint sigh before turning to look at Sasuke. But in truth, he didn't care. _'The damned teme got what was coming to him.'_ He glanced around and saw Sakura peering in horror from behind a tree that was littered with weapons.

The pink haired girl had a few scrapes and nicks on her face, probably from trying to see what was going on from her hiding place. She was still faintly pale and her clothes were rumpled and dirty now. Giving a snort, he turned back to his sensei. The silver haired man's eye wasn't as blank but he was still cold seeming and had a finger around a kunai hoop.

"We'll need to take him to the hospital." Kakashi-sensei's voice made him jump. Naruto nodded and went to move forward. If he was carrying the teme, he'd drag 'em. Then, Kakashi-sensei held out an arm and stopped him right in his tracks. Kakashi looked over at where Sakura was huddling. "Haruno. Come here." Very slowly, the girl got up and walked over, her green eyes full of fear. Naruto realized she was scared Kakashi-sensei was going to do the electricity thing to her as well.

"You will be carrying Uchiha back to the village. As he is unconscious, I don't think he will care if you drag him or haul him over your shoulder." She flinched as he spoke and the blond bit his lip. Sakura was physically weak and it would take a while for them to get back. "If you find that you cannot carry him, enhance yourself with chakra and carry him that way." Naruto watched as Sakura trudged over to Sasuke and struggled to lift him onto her shoulders.

She staggered and strained, her face gaining a red tinge to it as they made their way back to the village. It did take a while with Sakura having to learn how to enhance her limbs with chakra to keep up with them. Naruto and Kakashi walked ahead, passing the main gates. As they did so, Kakashi paused and said, "Help the girl carry the Uchiha. Get them to the hospital." The brown haired chunin that was at gate duty gaped before rushing over to Sakura and lifting the teme from her shoulders. "Naruto." The blond looked up at Kakashi, meeting the man's eye quickly. "We'll need to report to the Hokage. Your arm is fine?"

Naruto touched his arm gingerly and loosened the bandages to peer at his arm. The cut was mostly better and hardly hurt at all.

"I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei." The man nodded and Naruto hurried after him as he briskly made his way toward the Hokage's office. Naruto noticed the chunin hauling Sasuke-teme off in the direction of the hospital, Sakura following silently behind the chunin with a sort of blank and somewhat scared and nauseated look.


	2. Aprenticeship

_**MINI RANT SO READERS CAN UNDERSTAND THE STORY:**_

 _ **I don't understand why Kakashi allowed for Sakura to keep hitting and demeaning Naruto. Isn't that physical abuse or something? And Sakura and Sasuke to demean Naruto through what I see as practically verbal abuse? I thought Kakashi would have stopped them because IT LITERALLY SAYS IN THE NARUTO WIKI:**_ "An abuse of one's teammates is the only thing that can makes Kakashi cast aside his normally stoic demeanor, causing him to attack without mercy or his usual sense of sportsmanship." **_Which means he should have totally kicked their asses for that because they were somewhat of a team. I would have. I claim that as abuse and here is where it takes me._**

 ** _This is AU, some OOC and I do not own Naruto._**

 ** _Please review._**

* * *

The walk to the Hokage's office was strange for Naruto. Many villagers attempted to glare or sneer at him like they did on a daily basis, but a glance from Kakashi-sensei and they either looked away or turned around. _'This day just keeps getting weirder. Kakashi-sensei stood up for me and electrocuted Sasuke-teme and he's glaring back at the villagers to defend me AND now I'm going to report to jiji like a real shinobi.'_

So really, he was in a fair bit of shock. They reached the office and bypassed Iryu, the blond secretary that let him in jiji's office. He waved to her faintly and she blinked at him, giving a wave back. That's when he realized he was splattered with dirt, mud and leaves - his orange pants were still mud blotted and his shirt was torn and dirty. Giving a light groan, Naruto realized he was going to have a large amount of clean up to do later. When they got to the door of jiji's office, he saw Mink and Ox at door duty. He nodded to them slightly - they were either at door duty or always in the room when he was with jiji, so he grew on them.

They twitched their heads back before Ox told jiji they were there. Naruto entered just behind Kakashi-sensei, watching the rest of the room. There were two other people in there besides jiji and he studied them quickly. The guy was a little bit taller than Kakashi-sensei, with brown eyes that he saw when the man turned around, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard.

His clothing consisted of the standard Konoha ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up half way, a flak jacket, regular shinobi sandals and forehead protector. He also wore a sash that had the kanji for fire marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles on his wrists, and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves. The woman was different. Her clothes weren't revealing or too hiding, but they were different from the normal jounin outfit that most shinobi wore.

She was a fair-skinned woman with a slender build. She had long black wild hair reaching her upper back, and very unique eyes that were red in colour, with an additional ring in them. To Naruto, her eyes were the color of blood. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Her outfit was a red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible. Over the rest of her clothes, was very broad material which resembled bandages with a pattern on it similar to rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were also wrapped in bandages and she wore the Konoha forehead protector and shinobi sandals.

He stared at the two for another second before looking over at jiji. As the Third Hokage, many expected him to be big and strong and a man who was young and stern. He wasn't. He was an old man with white hair and white-and-red robes on, wrinkles and sunspots. But he wasn't known as The Professor for nothing. He was also the one who looked out for and cared for Naruto.

As Naruto and Kakashi made their way to the desk, the woman glanced over at him, seemingly surprised. Jiji stared at them for a second before speaking.

"Kakashi. What is the meaning of this?" His silver haired jounin sensei tilted his head and Naruto was reminded of the man's KI.

"May we speak to you privately after the team reports are done?" Jiji frowned slightly but nodded and turned back to the other two jounin who Naruto had been studying. _'Team reports...so that means they are the others' sensei? I hope they passed.'_ He thought quickly. Frankly, he didn't know exactly what was going to happen to him after the report.

"Kurenai, report."

"Team Eight has passed the exam. Their tracking and seeking skills were rough, but they used teamwork and managed very well."

"Asuma, report."

"Team Ten passed. They showed flexibility and teamwork after Shikamaru got them together to form a plan."

Naruto grinned and nodded. His classmates had passed! But, now what?

"Kakashi, report."

"Team Seven failed. As in they crashed and burned before taking off." Naruto flinched faintly. "Sakura Haruno is not fit for any type of shinobi work. She has only a fangirl mentality, is obsessed with the Uchiha boy and is both physically and mentally weak. Sasuke Uchiha is arrogant, will not listen to superiors, is abusive to anyone he sees as weaker and is not fit for shinobi detail. With the mental damage and trauma he has sustained, it would be safer to Konoha to kill him immediately."

The entire room stared at him, including the Hokage and the ANBU. Naruto kept his eyes on the ground and studied his feet. He knew there was something familiar with his sensei, but he couldn't figure out what. Kakashi actually reminded him of the ANBU, which he thought was possible and more than likely.

"Kurenai, Asuma, please leave." There was steel in jiji's voice. "Merely say that Kakashi's team failed if anyone asks." The jounin stared, giving a chorused, "Hai." The two jounin turned and left, seemingly stunned. Naruto could see this wasn't jiji anymore. This was the Third Hokage, Kage of Konoha. "Explain. Now."

Kakashi shifted slightly and the blond knew the signal well enough to step forward farther into jiji's sight. "Hokage-sama. I started the bell test and set a kage bushin to watch each of the three students. I let them alone for ten minutes to see what they would do. Naruto hid and then created kage bushin to attack me while he sent two other kage bushin to watch his classmates.

The kage bushin attacked me with the intent to kill to stop me from getting close to the three. I defeated them quickly. Naruto sent more kage bushin after me while my kage bushin shadowed him and he went and collected Haruno-san. Then he found the Uchiha and created even more kage bushin and sent them after me.

I fought them. My kage bushin recorded everything during that period. The Uchiha wanted to know how Naruto had created the kage bushin, but he wouldn't tell him and directed to you. The Uchiha wouldn't believe him and attacked him both verbally and physically. Haruno-san also began belittling him and then physically attacking Naruto when he still wouldn't tell the Uchiha.

Naruto did not fight back and tried to convince them still to work with him. They refused and the Uchiha left with Haruno-san following him. Naruto hid and I got to the clearing and went after Haruno-san with a simple genjutsu. She screamed and Naruto came after her. I defeated him and went to get the Uchiha.

During that time, Haruno-san woke up and tried to see what had happened to the Uchiha. Naruto didn't know and Haruno-san tried to kick him in the head after striking him with a stone. As he was in my Headhunter jutsu, he couldn't get free in time. I heard the commotion and reacted in time to stop her. She was lucky I didn't break her leg.

I removed Naruto from my jutsu and released KI to scare her. Then I pulled Naruto from my jutsu and told them the test was over. When I went to tell the Uchiha that, he wouldn't listen so I herded him to the other two and re-informed him the test was over. I informed the Uchiha and Haruno-san that neither of them would be continuing the shinobi program due to the problems I reported earlier. The Uchiha grew upset and started ranting about the council.

Naruto told him that the council could do nothing for him because the Hokage's word is more than a word of the advisors." Naruto realized there was something that sounded like pride in Kakashi's voice. Jiji glanced at him approvingly. "The Uchiha attacked Naruto because of that and I defended him. I wrapped wires around the brat's body and used an electrocution jutsu on him. I probably would have killed him if it weren't for Naruto stopping me. I made Haruno-san carry the Uchiha back to the village and sent them to the hospital with a chunin."

Jiji's face was unreadable for a little while. Kakashi's face couldn't really be seen, but he bet it was also impassive. Then, jiji spoke.

"You acted in an excusable manner. I understand why you did and you will not be held accountable for your actions." Naruto felt a hint of relief. "But why did you bring Naruto here just to report to me?" And the blond was also curious. Why had Kakashi-sensei taken him to jiji if all they were going to do was report?

"I want him to be my apprentice." Naruto blinked and then tried to keep himself from resembling a fish. All he could think was - _'What the hell?!'_ Jiji, however, was seemingly not surprised. The Hokage tilted his head.

"Those of Konoha work as a team."

"There have been times where jounin have taken apprentices. And it has happened when teams are insufficient." Jiji sighed and rubbed his forehead a couple of times. Naruto licked his lips with a dry tongue and tried to figure out what was going to happen to him now.

"The council will be in a damned uproar about you failing them."

"I answer to you alone. And you alone answer to no one but the daimyo - not the council." Kakashi replied calmly. The Hokage sighed again and closed his eyes for a second. Then he looked at Naruto who stood straight.

"Would you be alright with being Kakashi's apprentice and not having a team?" The blond tilted his head and tapped his headband.

"Genin." Then he pointed at the old man. "Hokage-sama." There was a hint of a smile on his lips as well as confusion but it was ignored. "What are the orders?" He thought through the mask, Kakashi-sensei was smirking faintly. Jiji had some new emotion in his eyes. Naruto didn't know what it was, but it was something good.

"Naruto, you are Kakashi's apprentice. Learn from him and excel, overcome any weaknesses." There was a firmness that jiji had almost never had with him - but he had it with the shinobi that came into his office. But now he was a shinobi, and jiji was treating him like one. Naruto smiled sharply.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

* * *

The pair walked out of the Hokage's office, content and somewhat curious (for Naruto, at least). The blond paused to look at Kakashi. "What do we do now?" He asked quietly as they moved.

" _We_ are going shopping. There's no way in hell I'm letting you run around Konoha anymore with that damned kill-me jumpsuit, and your weapons are inadequate." The silver haired jounin snorted. Naruto bit his lip and grimaced.

"Most of the shops don't like me."

"Well, then we'll just avoid those." The sarcasm in his sensei's voice did not escape him. Naruto's lips twitched. "Shinobi shops are not allowed to overcharge or refuse service to a shinobi, since we're _the_ defense of the village." They walked a while longer into the shinobi district until reaching a dark green storefront. Naruto followed Kakashi inside and watched as his sensei spoke quickly to the man at the counter.

"How many do you need?" The black haired man asked quickly, glancing at Naruto but not glaring or sneering. It was more of a sympathetic glance. Naruto realized that Kakashi had found a store that did not hate him. Keeping an ear out for the conversation, he gave quick, scanning looks around the shop.

There were racks of both clothes and weapons everywhere. Most of the colors were darks; blacks, grays, dark purples, dark blues, dark greens, etc. Several types of armor and holsters were set out and practically every weapon imaginable was displayed and ready for use by anyone who would need them. All in all, it was a simple, but well prepared store that catered to shinobi.

There was movement and he blinked as Kakashi slid past him. "Come on." The jounin said. "You're getting three outfits and three sets of armor. Weapons are already settled. You have several dozen shuriken, kunai and a couple rolls of wire. I've got a couple of tanto and I will be teaching you how to use them." At Naruto's confused look, he continued. "Using kunai as fighting blades are well and all, but I want you to have experience with multiple bladed weapons."

Accepting the strangeness that was now his sensei, Naruto again followed his sensei to help do his shopping. Clothes were gathered along with armor and he tried each on, trying to feel which one would give him a wide range of motion but help him blend in with the environment.

In the end, a dark gray long sleeved shirt with matching pants and black sandals were chosen along with black fingerless gloves that had metal on the back, black metal bracers, greaves and a thick black vest with various pockets and a high collar to protect the neck. The outfits were brought up to the counter and Kakashi told him to go look at the weapons one last time, although Naruto already knew that the man was trying to keep him from learning the price of everything.

Sighing, Naruto did as was asked of him, but intent on finding out the price later. He hoped it wasn't on his tab - he probably wouldn't be able to pay it back in his lifetime considering he only got a certain amount of money and he needed it for rent and food. Glancing at the blades, the blond tried not to listen as Kakashi paid.

Turning as his mentor approached him, he caught a gray blur as it was launched at his face. Blinking, he found that the bundle was his new clothes and armor. He looked at Kakashi, slightly confused. "Well? Go change. You aren't wearing that monstrosity any longer." Huffing, Naruto took the clothes and went into the back. "Toss that thing in the trash when you're done." Kakashi called after him.

After pulling off his favorite jumpsuit and shirt and changing quickly, he inspected himself in the mirror of the changing room. Naruto had to admit he looked better; more mature than when he wore the jumpsuit. Sighing, he took one last glance at the thing that had helped him through his childhood and set it in the trash. The jumpsuit was his childhood - he was a shinobi now.

* * *

Once that was all over, Naruto put his weapons and holsters on and again, followed Kakashi outside, his extra clothes in a storage scroll. Blinking at the low light, he realized they must have stayed a couple of hours in the store and that it was closer to dinner time than he had thought. _'Bread and meat for tonight.'_ The blond knew that he didn't have enough for ramen and if Kakashi's fight earlier was any indication of training, he'd need more than sodium and noodles.

"Sensei, did you use your own money to pay for my stuff? How much do I have to pay you back?" He asked, looking carefully at the jounin. Kakashi turned to him, slipping past a couple of glaring civilians who Naruto ignored.

"You don't have to pay me back. That was your own money - and there is still some left." Naruto furrowed his brow. "When you inadvertently took that little night mission of yours with Mizuki?" Kakashi reminded him. Naruto twitched faintly at the reminder of that night and nodded. "The Hokage gave you about a high C-rank mission and asked me to pass it on to you because we thought that I was going to be your team leader. Here."

The jounin slipped him an envelope that Naruto quickly hid deep in the recesses of his clothes. Then, Naruto and Kakashi found themselves in front of a small restaurant-slash-bar. "This is where we part, unless, of course, you want to come in." Kakashi said with a raised eyebrow. "Although, I'm telling you now, I'm not letting you drink." Naruto grimaced - should he tell his sensei the truth or wait to get found out when he entered?

But the jounin didn't give him a chance to talk and nervously, the blond rubbed the back of his neck as he once again went after his teacher.

Inside the bar, it smelled of beer and sake, sweat and people. Dodging a group of leaving shinobi, he spotted his sensei among the crowds and tables and kept from sight as he got to Kakashi's side. They were at a booth with three others, who Naruto instantly recognized as jounin from when the teams were being called out.

There were two men and a kunoichi sitting at the booth; Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuh and Kakashi hissed at him that the other man was Maito Gai. Asuma and Kurenai were the pair had already seen earlier in the Hokage's office.

Gai had a shiny bowl style hair cut and remarkably thick eyebrows; He wore a bright green jumpsuit, orange striped leg warmers, and the standard Konoha flak jacket, which was left unzipped. His red forehead protector was worn around his waist like a belt. Naruto inwardly was blinded by the bright green suit and wondered if that was what others thought of him when he had his orange jumpsuit.

All of the jounin looked very surprised to see Naruto alongside Kakashi in the bar.

"Kakashi, why is the kid with you?" Kurenai asked swiftly, confusion and a hint of stern disapproval in her voice. He realized the disapproval was because she thought Kakashi had forced him to come to the bar. Kakashi sat next to Kurenai and motioned for him to sit next to Asuma. Naruto took a seat and greeted the jounin. "Kakashi." Kurenai said again, glaring at the silvered hair man. "Why did you bring a genin here?"

"Firstly, he's my apprentice, Naruto Uzumaki and secondly, he's not drinking." His sensei spoke cooly to the black haired kunoichi who pressed her lips together. Gai beamed and said,

"Very youthful, my rival! You have your first apprentice! Our apprentices may become rivals!" Blinking, Naruto glanced at his sensei and wondered if this was a common occurrence from the green suited man and then thought it was better not to ask. Asuma waved over a waitress and Naruto closed his eyes for a second in annoyance.

"What do you want to - Naruto?" The waitress blinked as she saw him and the blond sighed faintly. Kara was both waitress and fellow runner among the gangs and organized crime dealers and casinos in Konoha. "I didn't know you ran with the shinobi. Aoi wanted to know if..." Now all eyes were on him, including Kakashi's and Naruto hoped the man wasn't going to have a fit.

"Yeah. New occurrence, Kara. Tell him I'll still be running." He replied swiftly and stared at the dark wood booth table as the jounin gave quick orders to the waitress before she left with a faintly worried look. The jounin around him stared and Naruto knew he wouldn't be getting out of anything tonight.

"Mind telling me what that was?" Kakashi sounded both curious and stern, as if reprimanding a child.

"You all know what I am." Naruto started icily. The others nodded slowly. "I'm a runner - I'll take things back and forth, trade, sell, smuggle, spy, whatever as long as I get what's owed. I do it for the casinos and dealers, big crime organizations and the geisha houses. I've got connections to information routes and smuggling rings, weapons and safe houses, big things that pay more." The jounin stared at him with hard eyes.

"So you're a criminal rat?" Kurenai snorted with a sort of sneer. Naruto snorted himself and shook his head.

"Call me what you want. I did what I had to get by. I'm not saying I liked doing some of those things." Kakashi leaned forward a bit and rested his head on his palm.

"Who's Aoi?"

"That would be me." A sharp voice said. The shinobi turned with weapons in their hands. "As he is my runner, I'd like it if you didn't hurt him. He's my best and I'll need him to run in a few minutes." The voice was accompanied by a set of dark green eyes, brown hair and dark tan skin. Kakashi and Asuma narrowed their eyes and Naruto nodded to the man. "You running with them now?"

"Yeah. So when I'm with Kakashi-sensei on missions or training, I can't be running anything unless he says yeah." Naruto laid down the boundaries quickly. Aoi stared at him for a second before shifting his jaw.

"Fine. But if you have some sort of free time or need anything, I'll still be ready." Turning to Kakashi, Aoi studied his sensei. The blond thought it was awkward and noticed around the booth, people had either left or moved. The green eyed man gave a faint snort at Kakashi. "You've got a good kid. Naruto's got a good head on his shoulders. But I'm telling you something, _shinobi_." Kakashi-sensei narrowed his eyes at the stress on the word.

"Naruto was one of us first before he ran with you. You hurt him, I've contacts all over the Lands and different organizations. I'll give you god damned _hell_ if he dies - shinobi or not." Naruto wanted to groan and hide his face but decided to stop the man before he went to far.

"Aoi! Kami - quit it! You get into a fight with him, I'm not paying for any damages." He rumbled out. Aoi shrugged and stepped back.

"I'm looking after you since you won't do it yourself. Running yourself ragged for a teacher - I'm keeping you from getting too hurt, kid. Just because you don't think we care doesn't mean we don't." The man tossed him two packages. "Mika sent the larger package. The smaller one goes to the Haruki ring." Nearly rolling his eyes, Naruto groaned softly.

"Again?! This is the third time this week! How much are they running through a damned day?!" Setting the larger package in a storage scroll, he set in firmly in his clothes and Aoi took one last glance at the other shinobi and stalked off with Kara coming past him with a tray of drinks. There was silence at the table as Kara set down everything and Naruto saw the hint of guilt in her eyes. She'd told Aoi that he was with the shinobi.

Asuma took a look at his drink before taking a quick sip. Slowly, the other jounin followed suit except Kakashi who left his drink untouched. Tired of the silence and the awkwardness from before, Naruto stood up. "Sorry for ruining your night, jounin-san. Have a pleasant evening." Grabbing the smaller package, he was gone in a chakra enhanced movement.

Outside of the bar, the night was cool and dark. Moving in the dark into the back alleys, a thin henge replaced his blue eyes and blond hair with brown hair and hazel eyes. With the package secure, he was off among the dregs of Konoha, the cursing, the bad beer and smokers, the trash, the orphans and wayward 'geisha'.


	3. Red Clouded Letter

_**MINI RANT SO READERS CAN UNDERSTAND THE STORY:**_

 _ **I don't understand why Kakashi allowed for Sakura to keep hitting and demeaning Naruto. Isn't that physical abuse or something? And Sakura and Sasuke to demean Naruto through what I see as practically verbal abuse? I thought Kakashi would have stopped them because IT LITERALLY SAYS IN THE NARUTO WIKI:**_ "An abuse of one's teammates is the only thing that can makes Kakashi cast aside his normally stoic demeanor, causing him to attack without mercy or his usual sense of sportsmanship." **_Which means he should have totally kicked their asses for that because they were somewhat of a team. I would have. I claim that as abuse and here is where it takes me._**

 ** _This is AU, some OOC and I do not own Naruto._**

 ** _Please review._**

* * *

The package Aoi had asked him to deliver made it successfully without trouble. Naruto was back in his worn down apartment with the money he'd received for delivery. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make rent without drawing on the rest of the C rank money he'd gotten.

After an icy shower (damned landlord wouldn't turn on the water heater), he pulled on a worn dark shirt and pants and kept two weapon holsters on him. He ate quickly with a simple meal of salmon and rice with some fruit. A knock on his window made him draw a kunai and narrow his eyes before he recognized the silver spiky hair and slanted hai-ate. _'What does Kakashi-sensei want? To talk about Aoi?'_ He wondered as he opened the window and his sensei came in.

"You can't go through the door?" He muttered under his breath as a blast of cool air made his shiver before he hurriedly shut it with a snap. The jounin sat down at his kitchen table and looked at him.

"I didn't tell you where we meet." The man said. "Tomorrow, we'll meet on training ground nine. Bring a day's worth of equipment." Naruto nodded and tilted his head.

"You didn't come to just tell me that, did you?" He asked quickly as he grabbed a couple of cups and the pot that he filled with water. "Do you want tea?"

"Possibly to the first. No tea, thanks." Kakashi answered as he glanced around Naruto's apartment. Naruto set the second chipped cup back in the cupboard and got the tea packet, dropping it into the pot with a slight splash. There was once again silence for a little bit while the tea boiled. Then; "You trust that man, Aoi?"

Naruto sighed. "Yes, I trust him. He was the first person besides jiji that took care of me. He gave me enough food that I wasn't hungry for two whole days, twice a day and in return I ran some things for him in the less...clean areas of Konoha. I was six. He showed me how to deal and gamble, trade and steal, smuggle and spy. I gained my first route connections through him and now I know quite a few people here and outside Konoha that don't loathe me for what I can't help being." He barely caught Kakashi's wince at his last words. "Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to know because that man has a pair. He threatened to bring down _crime syndicates_ and people from other _lands_ over here to try and _kill_ _me_ if you died. I wanted to know if you trust him because he might've helped you and it was a debt or if because you know he really cares." At Naruto's surprised look, he continued. "He really does care for you. I talked to him after the rest of the jounin had left."

That made Naruto smile faintly and nod. Aoi truly cared.

Taking the pot from the stove, he poured himself a cup of tea and put the rest to stay warm on the eye. Going to the table, he sat down and took a sip before setting the cup down. Kakashi stared out of the window while he sipped the tea. The quiet wasn't awkward but it wasn't family quiet either; it was more of an easy going quiet that was just there.

"Can you tell me what you'll be teaching me tomorrow?" Naruto asked with a yawn, stifling it with a hand. The jounin turned to look at him.

"Nope." Kakashi gave a funny eye smile and the blond's eye twitched.

"Then, if you could, tell me why you're still here?" He nearly growled at his sensei. He was tired and he wanted some sleep, kami damn it!

"You don't want me here?"

"If it's all the same to you, I would like to get some rest." Naruto informed him sharply before stifling another yawn. Kakashi blinked and then hmmed, standing up. "And if you're thinking about being late, forget it. I'm not opening the package from my friend tonight, I'll do it tomorrow morning and I might show you if it's not too personal and if you're not late." Kakashi raised an eyebrow, even if Naruto couldn't see it.

"Blackmail, Naruto?" He shrugged at his sensei.

"Whatever it takes, sensei. We're shinobi, not samurai." At that, Naruto caught a glimpse of raised eyebrow again before Kakashi nodded and gave a short wave before vanishing in a faint swirl of leaves. The leaves landed in a pile on his floor and the blond scowled after yawning at the mess he had to clean now.

* * *

Waking up and slamming a hand on his ringing alarm clock, he glanced at it and rubbed his eyes at seeing it was 7 am. _'Two hours until I meet with Kakashi-sensei. Ugh. I still have to eat and make sure I have enough supplies for today.'_ Naruto yawned and tossed away his covers and quickly made his bed. He tried to be neat and clean, meaning every weekend he scrubbed down the apartment and every day made his bed.

After getting dressed in his new clothes and tying his hai-ate around his forehead, Naruto went into the kitchen and ate cereal and fruit with half a glass of orange juice. Washing his dishes and leaving them to dry, he took out his supplies and set them on his kitchen table to see how much he would need to take with him.

There were two thick rolls of ninwire, five dozen shuriken and kunai, and a tanto. Besides that, his armor consisted of bracers and greaves. Setting aside three dozen shuriken and kunai, he placed the rest in a spare storage scroll that he strapped in one of the deep pockets of his vest.

Placing the shuriken and kunai in their proper holsters and coiling ninwire around his wrists and hiding the rest of the roll in a pocket, Naruto decided to wait on putting his armor on. While he wanted it on, it would just waste energy to carry it around while he still had about an hour left to wait. However, he hadn't forgotten what he'd told his sensei the night before.

Moving from the kitchen, the blond grabbed the storage scroll that held the package from Mika and went back into the eating area.

Mika was the leader of a smuggling and trade organization that traded and did its work with all five hidden villages and illegal organizations and crime groups. She currently held house in the Land of Earth. The woman was smart and had a deep pride and loyalty to those she trusted, which thankfully included himself and Aoi. She also traded in jutsu and shinobi weapons, a very, very highly dangerous trade even among her fellow criminals.

Opening the plain brown paper, Naruto read the note Mika had written.

 _/Maelstrom,_ _how have you been? My group has been well and I have a few jobs for you if you have time. For your information from the last mission, I have gifted you with the latest Bingo Books, several weapons, and movements about an S-ranked syndicate I've heard about that's been forming and collecting members. Keep your eyes and ears open because I've heard the organization is **highly** dangerous._

 _Much Love, Mika/_

Eyes wide, Naruto tore open the rest of the package, thoughts racing. _'Fuck! An S-rank syndicate forming...this is bad. Aoi will need to be warned and jiji probably will need to know if he doesn't already...fuck!'_ He snarled under his breath. S-rank groups had to be hunted down in masses of ANBU. They were kage level opponents and treated cautiously exclusively for such reason.

Inside the package, there were several slim books, each from the different lands and a few storage scrolls. The storage scrolls held the weapons but he ignored them completely and focused on the scroll that read _/S-rank Syndicate/_. Another note fluttered onto his counter.

 _/Naruto, for the love of Kami, DO NOT go hunting these guys by yourself! If you do, I will personally come kick your ass! Tell your kage but keep my name out of it! - Mika/_ The extra note made him snort but force the scroll open.

 _/Name: Akatsuki_

 _Leader: Unknown_

 _Objective: Unknown_

 _Appearance: All members of_ _Akatsuki supposedly wear long, black cloaks with red clouds, a red interior, and a chin-high collar; The robes are very distinctive, and will allow you to recognize the members of Akatsuki even from a distance._ _Another trend is for members to cross out the symbol on their forehead protectors to symbolize the severed ties with their former villages, When traveling, members sometimes wear conical straw hats with small ornamental torques and tassels hanging down over their faces, possibly to go unnoticed by the general population as most are S-class criminals._

 _\- Itachi Uchiha has been seen wearing a hat._

 _Members: (S-ranked Missing-nin) With a range of 10-15 members, the only known members are_ _Kisame Hoshigaki, Itachi Uchiha and formerly Orochimaru._

 _Kisame Hoshigaki:_ _feared as the Monster of the Hidden Mist, was an S-rank missing-nin from Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He carries the sword Samehada, which absorbs chakra. His appearance is most notable - he is pale green blue with gills under his eyes, pointed teeth and he is very tall._

 _Itachi Uchiha: Notably known for the Uchiha massacre and was a former ANBU. He has_ _onyx eyes under which have long, pronounced tear-troughs. He has jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face is framed with centre-parted bangs that extended to his chin. He is noted as S-rank from Konoha with the Sharingan._

 _Orochimaru: Former Akatsuki. Noted as S-rank and one of the Sannin. He defected from Konoha for illegal and unethical experiments on fellow shinobi and civilians. He was teammates with Jiraiya, also a Sannin and Tsunade, the third Sannin and the greatest known medic-nin in_ _existence. He is highly known to have the snake contract and snake like tendencies._ _Orochimaru is a tall man with extremely translucent-looking pale skin and straight waist-length black hair with the front strands falling to his shoulders. He has a long face with pronounced cheekbones, golden eyes with slits in his pupils, purple markings around his eyes and fang-like teeth — a reference to his snake-like nature._

 _The organization seems to operate out of Kiri, but I could be mistaken as it is only rumor to where their hideouts are./_

Naruto cursed darkly and immediately burned all the letters that had Mika's name on it. It was the least he could do for her. Setting the letter with the information onto the table, he opened the weapon scrolls.

Out of the first was another very thick scroll that was lighter than it looked. Another letter came out with it.

 _/Maelstrom, you better be thankful. I managed to comb through some old artifacts in a raid on a smuggling ring which had no idea what they had. This is a summoning contract. I don't know with what, though./_

The rest of that first scroll was several stacks of explosive tags and instructions on how to make them, along with the materials.

The second storage scroll had books on fuinjutsu, genjutsu, medical ninjutsu and other techniques, several ninjutsu techniques and the specifics of yin and yang chakra. The third scroll held more simple weapons, regular shinobi weapons and tools. Except, there were enough to stock several stores at least three dozen times over and still have more. The stuff covered his floor and counters and he couldn't see the floor. Sighing at the amount, Naruto took count of the type of weapons.

Kunai, shuriken, ninwire, armor, swords, tanto, soldier pills, rations, bandages and salves, blankets, explosive tags...the list went on. _'Kami damn it! What the hell does she expect me to do with all this?!'_ He grumbled heavily. Sighing, he grabbed two blankets, soldier pills, an extra set of armor, some bandages and salves and some rations. The rest he resealed and set it inside the heaviest protected pocket of his clothes.

After reevaluating his stored weapons for the day, Naruto felt himself ready for the day and took a glance at his clock. "SHIT!" It was 8:45. Grabbing the Akatsuki info letter, the blond frowned as he leaped onto the roofs and shot toward the training grounds.

* * *

Panting as he scrambled into the clearing, he skidded to a halt as he heard the faintest noise to his left.

Naruto slid a kunai into his hand and barely leapt backwards fast enough to avoid a shuriken to the throat. Instantly on guard, he flicked a quick series of kunai at the spot where the shuriken had come. Disguising the motion of creating a kage bushin, he used kawarimi to switch with his thrown kunai a second before a kunai rammed into the clone's stomach and dispelled it in a flicker of smoke.

Kakashi stood next to the smoke as it faded away and narrowed his eyes. Creating ten kage bushin, Naruto told them to spread out and attack, intent to maim. The kage bushin scattered and then tossed out shuriken and kunai before they leapt out of the trees to begin a knife fight. The bushin and his sensei clashed, sparks flying as the kunai scraped against each other.

There was a flurry of hand seals and half his kage bushin were enveloped in flames and destroyed. Naruto studied his bushin memories and saw that his sensei had created a huge ball of fire and spat it at them. That was definitely a jutsu to avoid getting hit with in any shape or form.

Creating more kage bushin, he sent them out and moved from the spot that he was sitting; no good being a sitting duck for anyone.

Carefully watching his sensei, Naruto held a kunai in his grip tightly and set chakra in his ears. The finest hint of breathing caused him to shoot from the tree and dodge shuriken that broke the branch with a snap. _'How did he...'_ He wondered for a second, staring at the place where he'd heard the breathing before understanding what Kakashi had done.

The one who was among his clones was also a kage bushin, the blond realized with a narrowed glance. Suddenly, a large explosion made him whip around. _'Did his kage bushin just blow up?!'_ Naruto heard the whoosh of flames behind him and shot forward, his leg getting burned on the side. The scent of his own burning flesh was kind of sickening but he forced it away.

A large fireball had hit the place where he'd stood, the ground cracked where the fire had exploded. His sensei flickered around him and he barely blocked the foot that went to pound into his ribs. Grunting at the force that hit his forearms, Naruto latched onto the leg with an arm and had three kage bushin swarm his sensei. With the kunai, he stabbed it into Kakashi's calf...only for his sensei to vanish and a log to replace him.

He noted the faintest scent of blood on the blade before it stabbed deeply into the log. Leaving the kunai, he switched out with one of his clones just before it burst into smoke. The other two clones rushed forward only to go the same way. With crossed arms, Kakashi-sensei did not look pleased, even if the only thing he could see was the jounin's eye and straight posture compared to the slouching his sensei had a day ago.

 _'Yeah...me being late might do that...what a hypocrite...'_ Naruto thought with a grimace as he slowly stopped panting. "Hey! I'm sorry for being late!" He grumbled. "I got a message from my friend about something really important!" Naruto defended himself as Kakashi only glared, a kunai in his hands. "I'm serious, Kakashi-sensei! It's about a missing-nin organization!" That gave the jounin pause and the kunai were stored back in their holsters.

The silver haired man was instantly at his side with a breeze and Naruto pulled out the letter. He handed it to Kakashi who carefully took it and what skin was showing went a bit pale. The letter was instantly tightly protected in one of the jounin's pockets.

"Do you trust this...informant?" Naruto didn't even blink at the question.

"With my life." And he knew saying that wasn't something insignificant in the shinobi world. Kakashi grasped his upper arm tightly and Naruto grimaced as he scraped the lightly burned area of his leg as he was jostled closer to the man.

"Hold on. I'll be using shunshin - another thing I'll be teaching you." With a tensing of his muscles, they were blurring from the training ground and then over the brightly colored roofs of Konoha. The blond just wondered how he kept getting into these situations as they got closer to the Hokage tower - again! It wasn't even a complete day! It was only 9:45 in the kami-forsaken morning!

Naruto shut his eyes as there was a sickening twist in his sight. When he opened them, jiji was staring at them with a faint bit of shock and curiosity, his pipe smoking faintly in his jaws. The Hokage looked at Kakashi-sensei with a sigh but grew serious as he saw there was no mirth in the jounin's eyes. Naruto kept his breakfast in his stomach and stood straight, waiting.

"What's wrong, Kakashi?" His sensei brought out the letter with precise movements and jiji removed the pipe from his mouth.

"I have information that will need to be ranked S-class, Hokage-sama." Jiji paused and then with a flick of his fingers, Naruto felt a stirring of chakra around the room. Jiji watched them carefully and Kakashi-sensei took it as a sign to go on with what he'd been saying. "Naruto knows a few people outside of the village and he was send some information about an S-rank missing-nin group called Akatsuki." Then he handed jiji the letter.

The Hokage's face grew darker and tighter as he finished, clearly unhappy. He set the paper on his desk and looked at Naruto. The blond knew he was probably in for a tongue lashing lecture and there wasn't going to be training today.

"Naruto. Who sent you this?" He grimaced faintly as Kakashi glanced at him out of the side of his eye. He licked his lips for a second. He wasn't going to lie to jiji - he couldn't. But Mika asked for herself not to be mentioned. So he told the truth.

"I can't tell you who they are. They asked me not to. But I'll tell you that I've known them for a while and that I trust them with my life." At that, jiji raised an eyebrow and glanced back at the letter. Sighing, the Hokage took a blow of his pipe and released a circle of white smoke that dissipated at the ceiling.

"Very well. This is an S-rank secret." More circles of white smoke floated into the air. "Tell no one and if anymore information gets passed along, Naruto, give it to me." Naruto wondered what the old man was doing, half grateful, half confused at the fact of no lecture or interrogation. But from the way jiji was acting, he was thinking hard. He hoped that jiji would do something useful with the info.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Both of them replied calmly. The chakra around the room flickered and then was gone. Suddenly, Kakashi grabbed his arm and Naruto immediately snapped his eyes closed, remembering what had happened a little while ago. They were rushed out in a blur. This time Naruto tried to relax and thought it was kind of nice to feel the wind on his face. He found himself dropping and he instantly opened his eyes, smelling the earth of the training ground.

Growling under his breath as he rolled and landed on his feet, Kakashi jumped from the tree branch and landed on his feet silently. Naruto huffed at the man for a second before Kakashi glanced at him roughly and he stopped. "Alright. I'm going to teach you how to climb a tree with chakra. It is a form of chakra control called the tree walking exercise."

Tilting his head, the blond wondered how that was going to work, not _too_ surprised that they were still training. Kakashi stepped up to the tree and placed a foot on it before walking up casually. He blinked and then sighed as the silver haired jounin walked back down and began to tell him how to do the exercise, before telling him to make a few kage bushin to help him. This was one hell of a day.

* * *

He worked on the chakra control exercise with twenty kage bushin for four and a half days due to the sheer amount of chakra he held. It was tiring and a pain in the ass. He'd cracked the tree in the first few hours and he'd gotten a few splinters in the face and Kakashi-sensei had thrown kunai and shuriken at him every time he slipped or lost his balance. But after those four and a half days were up, he could walk and run confidently up the tallest tree and hang upside down by the tips of his feet.

However, tree walking wasn't the only thing that he did. Kakashi-sensei had forced him to run five laps around Konoha in an hour. And that was just the beginning. After the laps, they practiced accuracy, taijutsu, dispelling genjutsu and killing intent tolerance and sometimes all at once. Thankfully, he was allowed to use kage bushin. And it was like that every day.

Naruto was sore nearly every day and thanked kami that he had the fox. It's healing abilities were something he was forever grateful for otherwise he'd be one big bundle of pain. Now, two weeks later, his skills in accuracy, taijutsu and chakra control had gone to mid-genin. He was also getting the hang of another chakra control exercise called the water walking exercise. Naruto could dispel D-rank and basic C-rank genjutsu and throw off chunin level killing intent from Kakashi.

Kakashi had also promised him sometime during the week that he would teach him shunshin, the shuriken kage bushin and how to project killing intent. Naruto was very excited about the shunshin and projection of killing intent and mildly so about the shuriken kage bushin. He saw the usefulness of the jutsu, but it just didn't seem the same as the other two things.

Pulling on a dark blue shinobi shirt and pants with a kunai holster on his hip and a shuriken holster on his thigh, he decided to take a trip to Raman Ichiraku. Since he had a free day on every Sunday, he decided it was a good idea. He made sure he had his hitai-ate on before leaving. Slowly spending money and carefully saving as well as being a shinobi helped him a lot.

Going through the village with a henge was easy. He'd thought of it while training once and then cursed himself when he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. Brown hair, hazel eyes, it was as easy as breathing and no one glared at him. Slipping among the residents of Konoha, Naruto got to the ramen stand and made sure to enter the place completely before releasing the henge.

"Naruto!" Ayame smiled as she waved to him over the counter, right in his face. Naruto twitched and relax his hands. If he was twitching for a kunai in his hands after just a week...he needed to control himself. Kakashi-sensei wasn't going to get him and waving a hand in someone's face didn't mean they were attacking. Looking up at a slightly frowning Ayame, he smiled back.

"What's up?" He said, taking a seat at his normal place at the counter. Ayame raised a dark brown eyebrow and then sighed. Frowning, Naruto hoped she wasn't mad about his reaction.

"You got caught up in the shinobi stuff." At his confused glance, she followed up. "I saw that - you were wanting a weapon. Is your sensei that's doing that?" Sighing, he rubbed an eye with a hand and nodded. Ayame gave a sad smile as she started to go into the back. "You're growing up and becoming mature, Naruto. Just make sure you don't forget to protect yourself among the bloodshed and fighting. You're like a little brother to me and I'd hate to see something happen to you."

After a few minutes, she brought out a few miso ramen which he thanked her for and slowly enjoyed as he thought. Teuchi came out when he was halfway through the second large bowl.

"Hey, Naruto. How's my favorite customer?" The ramen cook asked, a smile on his face. Naruto snorted and gave his own grin.

"Pretty cool! Kakashi-sensei is going to teach me two new jutsu and how to project killing intent. It's gonna be awesome!" He grinned as the older man laughed at his enthusiasm before he neatly gobbled down another bowl and a half.

"So you're enjoying training? Your sensei's not making you work too hard now, is he?" Teuchi had been worried about Naruto, especially when the blond hadn't dropped by in three weeks.

"Nope. I'm running laps around Konoha, trying to dispel genjutsu and practicing my accuracy with kunai and shuriken after I practice my chakra control. I'm learning to walk on water! It's pretty cool. I can stand on the water for seventeen minutes now and I can walk about halfway around the pond!" The man raised an eyebrow faintly and nodded.

"Sounds like hard work, Naruto. Just try and stop by more often. Ayame and I got worried something had happened to you when you didn't show up for three weeks." Pausing as he went to take a bite, Naruto nearly dropped his chopsticks in surprise.

"You got really worried about me?" At Teuchi's stern look, he stammered. "I mean - I know you guys might be worried, but _really_ worried?"

Ayame came out of the back to glare hard at him, practically brandishing a wet towel. "You see here!" She grumbled at him. Naruto blinked at the unusually stern voice she showed him. "We think of you as family, Naruto. Don't forget that!" Teuchi nodded.

"We do, Naruto. Just because others are ignorant to how nice and kind you are, doesn't mean we are. We'll accept you - shinobi-to-be Hokage, ramen eater and all." He finished with a chuckle. Naruto felt his eyes water and he quickly blinked away faint tears.

"Thank you guys - and girls." Naruto added as Ayame gave him a _look_ that made Teuchi chuckle again. Ayame giggled as she went into the back and brought out more ramen which he quickly ate. Finally, after another twenty minutes of chatter and fifteen bowls, the blond decided it was time to go. He finished up his last bowl and thanked Ayame and Teuchi quickly.

Checking the sun as he waved goodbye and set up the henge again, he noticed it was around eleven-thirty and decided to look at the medical ninjutsu and such. Going back to his apartment building and grabbing his scrolls, he entered one of the unused apartments as a precaution of any whiplash from the jutsu.

After flipping through the pages, Naruto decided on looking at the chakra scalpels, threads and chakra transfer technique. They were useful if he needed some aces up his sleeve. And the chakra transfer technique was undoubtedly useful, especially if they got caught in a major fight and he had to help his comrades. It also helped him in chakra control. Creating forty-five kage bushin, he said,

"You know the drill. Fifteen of you get started on chakra scalpels, fifteen on chakra threads and the rest on chakra transfer." The blue wearing clones separated into groups and immediately began working. Naruto himself began reading everything on his three chosen jutsu that he hadn't the first time, which wasn't very much.

Slowly, his kage bushin worked on the techniques and after a couple of hours, six of the fifteen kage bushin working on chakra threads managed to create thin, two foot strings while the bushin on chakra scalpels managed tiny needle-like blades.

The success drove the clones to push harder. Naruto smiled at the success while grabbing one of the Bingo Books and flipping through it, trying to memorize the page, name, rank and village of origin. Some of the missing-nin were interesting to learn about. Most were chunin rank, with some being jonin.

There were a few ex-ANBU from other lands and villages as well, a sort of frightening and exciting prospect. With a thought about earlier, Naruto was flicking through the pages for Kisame Hoshigaki, Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru the Sannin.

 _/NAME: Kisame Hoshigaki_

 _RANK: S-rank_

 _FORMER AFFILIATION: Kirigakure [Cypher Division; Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist]_

 _KEKKEI GENKAI: None_

 _WHEREABOUTS: Currently_ _unknown_

 _NATURE TYPE: Water, Fire, Wind, Earth_

 _Feared as the Monster of the Hidden Mist, is an S-rank missing-nin from Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He carries the sword Samehada, which absorbs or "eats" chakra. His appearance is most notable - he is pale green blue with gills under his eyes, pointed teeth and he is very tall and muscular. He specializes in water jutsu and may combine with his sword to allow him to breathe underwater./_

Frowning, Naruto was certain if he met with the guy, he was not going to get near the water. He'd (obviously) need to avoid getting touched or hit with the sword. Moving on to Itachi Uchiha, he realized - _'Damn, how did I not recognize the guy's name?! He's probably the teme's brother - the one he wants to kill!'_ Grimacing, Naruto found the Uchiha.

 _/NAME: Itachi Uchiha_

 _RANK: S-rank_

 _FORMER AFFILIATION: Konohagakure [Uchiha Clan]_

 _KEKKEI GENKAI:_ _Sharingan_

 _WHEREABOUTS: Unknown_

 _NATURE TYPE: Fire, Wind, Water, Yin, Yang_

 _Known best in Konoha as the one who did the Uchiha Massacre, is an S-rank missing-nin elite genius from Konoha. Famed for his Sharingan, his ability to use it is at best flawless. His appearance is the same as any other Uchiha - pale skin, black hair in a low ponytail and_ _onyx eyes under which have long, pronounced tear-troughs._ _/_

If he'd avoid the water with the guy above, there was no way in hell he was opening his eyes around the Uchiha. That meant fighting blind. Damn. Well, just another thing to ask Kakashi-sensei to help him with...unless he had a jutsu to help him. With a quick hand seal, a kage bushin was going through the jutsu scrolls Mika had sent.

Naruto was unhappy with the pitiful amount of information in the Bingo Book. But it was better than nothing. But if he met either one of these guys, he was toast. No chance. Flicking through the rest of the Bingo Book, Naruto found Orochimaru the Sannin and grimaced darkly.

 _/NAME: Orochimaru the Sannin_

 _RANK: S-rank_

 _FORMER AFFILIATION: Konohagakure_

 _KEKKEI GENKAI: None_

 _WHEREABOUTS: Unknown_

 _NATURE TYPE: Wind, Lightning, Earth, Water, Fire, Yin, Yang_

 _Best known as the Snake Sannin, former student of the Third Hokage._ _he has very pale skin, golden eyes with slitted pupils, purple markings around his eyes and fang-like teeth. He also has pronounced cheekbones and straight waist-length black hair with some locks covering and framing his face or to his shoulders._ _He defected from Konoha for illegal and unethical experiments on fellow shinobi and civilians. He was teammates with Jiraiya, also a Sannin and Tsunade, the third Sannin and the greatest known medic-nin in_ _existence. He is highly known for having the snake contract and snake like tendencies./_

The only thing the blond could think was that he was glad the creepy snake Sannin was not in Akatsuki anymore. He was running away - far away - if he ever caught sight of the sannin. He wasn't stupid. Naruto would prefer to live, thank you very much.

 _'If they're coming after me, I need to step up my training.'_ He sighed and then dispelled the kage bushin that was looking through the jutsu when it announced it found one. Information flooded his mind but he focused on the water jutsu. The Kirigakure no jutsu stood out, as it created a mist who's thickness was controlled by the amount of chakra put into it. It would be perfect for blind fighting and it was a D-rank which made it especially easier to learn.

Slowly dispelling the clones working on the chakra scalpels and chakra threads, Naruto gained an understanding on how to create the basics of both techniques. It was just a matter of refining them now. The kage bushin working on chakra transfer were having a slow going, but after he dispelled them, Naruto found the reason why.

The bushin were transferring their own chakra and after a while of practice, it would deplete them until they could barely keep themselves from dispelling. Thankfully, there was some progress and he could successfully transfer a small amount of chakra.

Stretching to relieve his stiff muscles from sitting, the blond twelve year old went into his apartment and got a cup of water. Using water jutsu would be easy with water. After relieving his parched throat a few times and filling up the cup again, Naruto brought it into the other room and started practicing the hand seals.

Ox - Snake - Ram. Seemed easy enough. Once he'd gotten the hand seals down, he tried it with chakra. The first time, it didn't do anything. The third time, however, the water flickered from his cup and due to the amount of chakra in it, he ended up creating a mist thick enough that he couldn't see past his nose. Sighing at the fact that he couldn't see through the wet fog, Naruto created some kage bushin and had them spread out around the room.

Naruto closed his eyes and waited. To fight, he'd only use his chakra scalpels and chakra threads - refining them in such a manner would be useful.

A second later, a fist nearly smashed him in the face. Dodging quickly, he send out a chakra string and yanked the clone at him with a pull of his hand before the thread vanished at contact. Flicking through the hand seals of a chakra scalpel, Naruto tripped the kage bushin and sliced the tiny blade through its shoulder instead of its throat - the kage bushin managed to recover and dodge at the last second.

A kick knocked him out of his thoughts and the blond struggled to get to his feet when several fists pounded into his back. Hitting the floor again chest first, Naruto ended up releasing the kirigakure no jutsu. The mist vanished instantly and he growled at the kage bushin who all dispelled but one.

"What did I do wrong?" He grumbled at the bushin.

"You made the mist way too thick, for one. It took a hell of a lot for us to coordinate and attack you - much less find you. But you couldn't find us either. Practice with using your other senses, I think. And you need practice keeping the chakra threads and chakra scalpels stable. If they vanish every time you try to use them, you won't get much use out of them." The kage bushin added. Naruto rubbed his spine in annoyance and nodded.

Sighing, the blond had the bushin dispel before he sat down and wiped faint water droplets from his hair. Spotting the overturned water cup a little ways away, Naruto decided on working on his chakra threads.

He concentrated on sending chakra through his finger to create the thread. It came to him quickly and a thin blue thread streaked out from his finger. Carefully concentrating more chakra, Naruto made the thread grow about half an inch. He made it twist and press it against the floor. The thread flickered and he stabilized it by setting more chakra in it.

He grinned faintly as the thread held, even after getting up and pushing it onto the walls and ceiling. Now all he had to do was extend the thread. With careful motions, Naruto pushed the thread outwards, adding more chakra until it was nearly as long as the room and didn't dispel when it touched anything.

For the next few hours, he practiced creating and moving objects with the chakra strings, learning to move the strings like a whip before going on to the chakra scalpels and successfully creating complete blades.

Flicking a chakra thread at the cup, Naruto brought the cup toward him and caught it. Pleased at his success, the blond went through the hand seals for the kirigakure no jutsu to ensure he remembered it before blowing out a thin stream of mist that was way too thin to be of any use. Naruto kept at it until he found what he felt was the proper amount of used chakra and mist and summoned some more kage bushin.

He was going to master fighting blind - even if it took him a few weeks.


	4. C-Rank Wave

_**MINI RANT SO READERS CAN UNDERSTAND THE STORY:**_

 _ **I don't understand why Kakashi allowed for Sakura to keep hitting and demeaning Naruto. Isn't that physical abuse or something? And Sakura and Sasuke to demean Naruto through what I see as practically verbal abuse? I thought Kakashi would have stopped them because IT LITERALLY SAYS IN THE NARUTO WIKI:**_ "An abuse of one's teammates is the only thing that can makes Kakashi cast aside his normally stoic demeanor, causing him to attack without mercy or his usual sense of sportsmanship." **_Which means he should have totally kicked their asses for that because they were somewhat of a team. I would have. I claim that as abuse and here is where it takes me._**

 ** _This is AU, some OOC and I do not own Naruto._**

 ** _Please review._**

* * *

 **Hello people. More reviewers that thankfully like me and my story!**

 **Thank you a lot, as always.**

* * *

ButterfliesInTheSkies chapter 6 .

Good job with the story and defending your self!

* * *

Beta117 chapter 6 .

You see, the thing about fanfiction is he can tell the story how ever he fucking want. The story dose not have to stay in the standards of the real thing. And honestly I like the story.

* * *

Ebony Mitsu chapter 6 . 3h

You've had ANOTHER one!? Pity they don't seem to have the balls to sign in when they review or put their names to said posts. You truly seem to find all the ones that seem intent on making you the centre of their universe, don't you hunni. Can I write my own response? Tough tit, I feel like it, and I hope like hell they read the other reviews and see this and I would LOVE to get their responses sent to my inbox, because I am totally in the mood to deal with their so-called 'opinions' right now.

Guest: Sweetie, it doesn't matter WHAT form it takes; anything that injures a person physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually and is intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally) inflicted by another person IS ABUSE. Abuse comes in many forms. I should know. I suffered it for five years. Is Naruto a saint? No. Course not. He's human and a ninja to boot. I admit, the kid tends to give as good as he gets, HOWEVER, as Annabelle has so sweetly pointed out, Kakashi's very character has a fairly contradictory flaw within the first few episodes of the whole series (after directly stating that people who treat their teammates as such are worse than scum, he ignores the blatant treatment of one of his genin by the boy's teammates). Sakura is a whiney little brat and Sasuke is a sulky little brat, both with a superiority complex to boot that neither ever lost throughout the series. And they do abuse Naruto, quite badly, but his very temperament and personal experience make him rise above it in spite of it all because, unfortunately, he's used to it. Do I hate them? No. But, I was ever so confused that this fatal team dynamic was never addressed in-series. Nobody deserves this sort of treatment. Not a jinchuuriki, not a demon, not a civilian, and not Annabelle. And sweetheart, let me tell you, you're a bloody hypocrite and the worst type of bully there is; a complete and utter coward. You should never say the words you have said to anyone, and I am ashamed to think you're a human being.

FU: I have several things to say to you, but much less than the other honeypie because, let's face it, what you wrote is far less horrifying than what the other bloody idiot wrote. Firstly, I would like to reiterate Annabelle's advice; LEARN TO SPELL! Honestly, if you're going to leave a review like that, at least make it less of an assault on my eyes. Secondly, I'm certain that SAI could come up with better insults than you. Heck, I'm certain I heard better from my cousin when she was THREE. Over fifteen years ago when kids' vocab was still in the realms of "so there!" Seriously; forget growing up sweetheart; you need to EVOLVE.

Ok, rant done.

Annabelle, darling, I like this story, I think you're a gem, I think the story is a gem, and if you cave to the pathetic miscreants telling you to acquaint your sweet sassy self with a noose I will personally summon your spirit and torment you for it.

Peace out.

Ebony xo

* * *

 **(A/N FOR THE GEOGRAPHY: WAVE IS FARTHER OFF THE COAST FROM THE LAND OF FIRE THAN ON THE MAP)**

D-rank missions _sucked_. The problem with not being on a genin team was the fact that any D-rank mission Kakashi-sensei accepted was done by Naruto alone. The pro; all the D-rank money was also his alone, and that helped his wallet and eating habits _a lot_. The D-rank mission hated by every genin was the Tora mission, which Kakashi-sensei claimed once a week (they took three missions a week) as a means of a 'search-and-capture' mission. He wasn't allowed to harm the damned thing, either! It was a demon!

However, over the past two and a half weeks, he'd managed to achieve his goal of learning to fight blind and use his other senses properly while in the mist. He'd also gotten Kakashi's permission to run a couple of things for Aoi and taught the man a bit about dealing as if he was one of the street runners instead of a shinobi.

Kakashi-sensei and Aoi weren't truly on the best of terms, but they had an agreement to watch out for him. Naruto had also told Aoi to watch out for the Akatsuki via some notes and an extra tip on one of his runner friends that he hadn't introduced to Kakashi. He wasn't exactly exchanging the words verbally and Aoi would immediately burn the paper after memorizing it.

Problem solved over the S-rank secret.

Right now, however, the blond was just finished pulling up some weeds from a farmer's garden. His shirt and pants were splattered with mud and dirt and his kage bushin weren't much better looking at the moment. They'd nearly started a mud fight until Naruto had quietly threatened to dispel them. Sometimes he wondered if kage bushin got dumbed down because of less chakra in their systems. Seemed likely.

Grabbing his water bottle, Naruto had the kage bushin dispose of the rest of the weeds into the wheelbarrows and sent them to throw out the matted tangles of roots. Once he had gotten up and double checked everything was set, he put away the wheelbarrows and dispelled the muddy kage bushin with a glance, shoving away memories of mud and ragged ferns.

Over the three weeks, beside his personal training in his apartment, he had gotten what was promised by Kakashi-sensei. The shuriken kage bushin jutsu, the shunshin no jutsu and projection of KI had been shoved down his throat until he could do them in his sleep.

His water walking had improved as well. Now, Naruto could stand, walk, run and skate over the water for two hours. The white haired jounin had also started forcing him to spar on water and to the blond, it was harder than it looked. He could last maybe fifteen to twenty-five minutes sparring on the water and that was after a week and a half of intense practice. But at least he was making progress. His basic skills were mid-genin and Kakashi-sensei had just started on the tanto training the day before yesterday.

 **/FLASHBACK\**

 _Naruto brought out the tanto that Kakashi had given him and held it out._

 _"Your right elbow should be bent with the tip of the tanto facing the opponent. Your grip should be firm - too tight and your arm will go numb every time you strike or catch a strike on your blade. Too loose and the tanto will get knocked out of your hands." Nodding, he adjusted his grip on the hilt to resemble how Kakashi-sensei was showing him._

 _"Like this?"_

 _"Shift your fingers closer. It shouldn't slip from your hand." The jounin said quietly, moving to show him how to exactly grip the tanto. "Better." Kakashi nodded._

 _Naruto waited for his sensei to continue. "When you attack, you want to keep the area you strike and move in at within a rectangle; from the neck to the waistline. There should be no wide, sweeping motions due that they are easily blocked. Avoid being directly in front of the opponent unless there's not another choice."_

 _Kakashi-sensei created a kage bushin and had it stand in a loose stance. "Watch. I'll show you a simple kata. When you stand, you should always be ready to move and dodge." The blond nodded. It was good advice._

 _Kakashi-sensei stood in his stance, knife arm bent in the way he had told Naruto. Then, the kage bushin shifted in its position and his sensei attacked. They moved in a sort of slow motion, which Naruto took to be the way the jounin would show him the kata._

 _A single sideways step had his sensei at an angle inside the bushin's guard,_ _where he slipped through the punch aimed at his head and brought up the tanto only to neck height before slicing downward across the chest and torso through the flak jacket._ _The kage bushin went up in a cloud of smoke. Naruto grinned. It was simple and effective. "Naruto, what did I do?" He blinked at being on the spot._

 _"You... stepped sideways into his area and sliced his chest." He answered carefully. Kakashi made a noise of agreement._

 _"A...basic observation but you have the gist of it." His sensei walked over to him. "Now it's your turn to try."_

* * *

"I'm done, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said as he walked up to the silver haired man who - funnily enough - sat reading his orange book. But he noticed the way that his sensei's eyes would flicker over the very edge of his book and glance in a wide sweeping motion, taking in everything. _'He's not really reading the book. Just a distraction.'_ He thought as Kakashi snapped his book closed and eyed his muddy clothes.

"Good. We'll report in and then you can take the rest of the time to get cleaned up." Naruto nodded and wiped mud from his palms.

"Hey!" The farmer scurried up to them, slightly out of breath. "Here." He shoved an envelope at Kakashi. "The kid did the work of a team that would've taken me half a month. There's a little extra with the pay." The blond was surprised. There was someone regular in Konoha that didn't hate him?

Kakashi took the envelope and Naruto thanked the farmer before they used shunshin to blur down the dirt road back to the main village. Once they had let the chunin at the gate glance over their papers, the pair were heading to the Hokage's office to give their quick report. Naruto grumbled as the secretary at the desk stared at his mud stained clothes and Kakashi let his amusement shine through faintly.

When jiji called them in finally, he was treated once again to amusement, this time from jiji. The blond huffed faintly and stared out the window as Kakashi-sensei started to give the report, uncomfortable as the mud started to make his clothes stiff.

"- Kakashi, do you think that Naruto is ready for a C-rank mission?" Berating himself for not paying attention, Naruto glanced at his sensei, waiting anxiously for the answer.

"Yes. He's ready for a C-rank." _'Yes!'_ He barely kept himself from shouting in joy and contained it all in a large grin that sparked the Hokage's amusement once more. Kakashi seemed to snicker for a second before Naruto glared at his sensei faintly in annoyance.

"Alright then." The man shuffled through a few folders and began glancing through them. "We have -" There was a hurried knock at the door and then a man burst into the room which made Naruto and the chunin around the Hokage twitch for their weapons. Naruto paused as he realized the man was a sweaty, red-faced chunin with a note in his hand.

"H-Hokage-sama! Urgent message from Asuma-san's bird!" The chunin rushed over and handed him the note. Jiji opened it and after a second frowned darkly.

"Kakashi, you have a mission with Naruto. Asuma and his genin have gone to Wave to escort a bridge builder and ended up meeting with the Demon Brothers and Zabuza Momochi. Asuma is injured and they are in need of back-up." Naruto blinked for half a second, letting him mind try and catch up to what jiji was saying. _'Asuma...Team Ten - that's Ino, Choji and Shikamaru! What are they doing on a C-rank? And Zabuza...I've heard his name before...'_

Then it hit him. _'Shit! Zabuza Momochi - A-rank missing-nin from Kiri in the Bingo Books, former ANBU and one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist!'_ Biting his lip, he looked up at Kakashi. The silver haired jounin was grim, his eye darker now with the possible death of a comrade.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." He turned to Naruto and the blond waited for orders. "Pack for a month. We leave in twenty minutes at the main gate." Nodding, Naruto nodded to an also grim seeming jiji and as the Hokage dismissed them, gave a tiny wave of good-bye.

The pair split up on the rooftops and Naruto scrambled into his apartment, stripping off his muddy clothes and throwing on his extra. Grabbing a duffle bag, he tossed in spare clothes, some ramen, bread and jerky, some water bottles, a map, two Bingo books, extra kunai and shuriken, a first-aid kit, ninwire, some soap, an extra tanto, explosive tags, soldier pills, rations, a few blankets, his wallet and a tent. The storage seals he'd put on the duffle bag with Kakashi-sensei's help held the extra stuff.

Making sure he could easily reach his tanto and kunai holster, Naruto strapped on his armor and made sure his thick vest covered his throat. The extra storage scroll of supplies from Mika was once again tucked into the deepest pocket of his vest and he made sure that he had his other scrolls from Mika as well. He couldn't let the stuff he wanted safe to be destroyed if a villager or anyone hunting for Aoi decided to rip into his apartment.

One second last check around his apartment had him satisfied before he had locked up and was sprinting over the rooftops quickly. Greeting Kakashi-sensei with a nod, they began at a quick sprint from the gate. His classmates needed his help. None of them would die.

* * *

They had stopped to rest three times in the past day and a half and only for a few hours. Naruto had taken out his ration bars and jerky to eat when they stopped. Kakashi-sensei was pushing them hard to get there. Asuma was an A-rank shinobi, but the fact that he was injured put the entire group in danger until they got to Wave.

It was nerve-wracking, the wait, besides the fact he was tired. He wasn't all that fond of Ino and he'd only talked to Choji and Shikamaru a few times, but they were still classmates.

Pressing his lips together as the pair shot across the water like lightning, Naruto fingered a kunai and sighed. They were water walking across to Wave and had less than twenty minutes left until they reached land. A large amount of chakra pills helped keep them steady and above water, although Kakashi-sensei had taken to hauling him over his shoulder once or twice when he had needed to rest. He had thanked his sensei gratefully even though the silver haired jounin shrugged it off without protest.

The salty sea air had turned to mist a ways back, so while they did shoot forward like lightning, they kept close as to not lose each other. Naruto kept Kakashi's green flak jacket always in sight and would use chakra enhanced senses to locate him when he was not able to sense him otherwise. They had used the massive bridge near them as a means of prompting a faster run because it meant they were closer to land than they'd been before.

"When we get to the bridge builder's house, I'll take stock of the situation. Once everything is relatively fine and we're done resting, send out kage bushin to scout and keep watch around certain points such as the construction site and the house." Kakashi-sensei's voice made him twitch and listen closely. "Knowing Asuma, he would've hardly taught his genin much of anything. When we get the chance, I'm going to create a kage bushin to help train them. Zabuza won't die that easy and he's probably still alive."

"What will _we_ be doing, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, now a bit curious. His sensei hadn't included him in the equation of Asuma's genin and felt his mouth go a little dry at the thought of Zabuza possibly alive.

"I'll be teaching you some elemental jutsu. I hadn't thought we'd be taking such a high ranking mission so I hadn't thought to teach you any yet, but now that we're fighting an A-rank missing-nin..." Kakashi trailed off, Naruto making a noise of understanding. The blond blinked as the water started to grow less choppy around them and the sound of water hitting rock met his ears. He grinned faintly. _'Yes! We'll be off the water soon!'_ That shook off a bit of his sleepiness and he nearly jumped for joy as he glared through the mist to spot a dock on a rocky beach.

Stumbling as he yawned, Naruto groaned as his foot got soaked when he missed a step. He slowed and dragged his foot from the water, annoyed as his foot was now chilly.

"Troublesome." Kakashi made a sound of amusement, but Naruto nearly got the last laugh as his sensei almost slammed into the dock when he wasn't paying attention. Skidding to a halt and sending up a spray of salt water, the blond hoisted himself up on the dock and fell onto his back with a groan, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his pack poking his spine. Now that the chakra pills were wearing off, his legs were sore! All he wanted to do was sleep now.

"Come on, Naruto." A faint shadow was cast over his body and he groaned as he halfheartedly sat up. "We just have a little while to go and then we can sleep as much as we want until tomorrow." There was tiredness in Kakashi-sensei's eye and Naruto rubbed his legs with rubber-like fingers for a minute. "Get something to eat. The pills wearing off will starve your body." Pulling off his duffle bag, he rummaged through it and pulled out some jerky, bread and two water bottles.

"Here, Kakashi-sensei. You need something to eat too. You had more pills than I did." His sensei took some of the food and Naruto turned his back. It would be rude not to give his sensei privacy when he wanted it. Scarfing down the food, he drank half a water bottle in a few gulps, feeling slightly better.

After Kakashi had tapped him on the shoulder and handed back the now empty water bottle, he placed everything back in the duffle bag and yawned. Then he staggered to his feet and yanked his bag onto his back. The pair started jogging from the dock deeper into the area where the mist had thinned out to a faint wisp, nearly immediately finding themselves in a small, rundown town. People were in fear. The two shinobi didn't know why, but they were had a feeling they were going to find out soon.

Once Kakashi-sensei had managed to get directions to the bridge builder's house (whose name was Tazuna), they were once again running. They took it faintly slower to conserve energy so they wouldn't need more chakra pills. Naruto was irritated at how far the damed bridge builder lived from the bridge. It was hardly as long as crossing the ocean to Wave, but it felt like forever since he was so tired. As they got within a quarter of a mile of Tazuna's house, Kakashi stopped him and they walked. His reasoning was that they didn't want to set off any traps by not paying attention.

But doing that was for nothing. Naruto and Kakashi found no evidence of any traps, set or unset. Naruto wondered if his old classmates actually thought about guarding the bridge builder seriously or if they took it as a joke. _'They prob-probably took it as a joke.'_ He thought with a yawn. _'Choji hates the thought of fighting, Ino hardly knows how to do anything and Shikamaru is too lazy.'_

The house came into view, a ragged and tall two story house on the water. Even in his state of tiredness, Naruto noticed the same look to the house as in the town. Poverty and fear drenched the place like the mist that covered the island. It was like a stench that sank into the very air.

Kakashi led him up to the house, watching all the while. He knocked on the door and Naruto didn't hold back his twitch of disgust that Ino opened the door wide, without a weapon in hand and looking surprised. She blinked at them for half a minute before asking,

"What are you two doing here? I thought Asuma-sensei sent for back up." And now he tried to keep himself from giving off KI. Kakashi-sensei gave her a look that made her back up.

"We _are_ the back up. We ran straight from Konoha and water walked across the ocean to get here because he's injured and genin can't hold their own against an A-rank missing-nin." Ino blinked owlishly again and then stepped aside and let them in. Naruto wanted to fall asleep right then and there, but kept standing, taking in the clean but old house. From one of the other rooms in the house, a woman with long black-blue hair and black eyes stepped into the room.

"Ino-san, who are these people?" Shikamaru and Choji followed her. Ino clasped her hands.

"Tsunami-san, this is a jounin of Konoha..." She trailed off, looking slightly awkward. Kakashi took up the introductions.

"I am Kakashi Hatake and this is Naruto Uzumaki, my genin apprentice. We are the back up sent for Asuma." Tsunami frowned faintly and then nodded.

"He's upstairs resting. Do you need anything to eat?"

"No. We need beds though." Tsunami frowned again and then looked at Kakashi.

"I don't have anymore rooms, Hatake-san. You may have to take turns sleeping in one room?" She suggested with an apologetic look. Ino grimaced and made a face. Choji spoke up.

"Naruto, you can take my bed, if you want. Hatake-san, Asuma-sensei has room for another futon in his room, but it may be a bit cramped." Naruto nodded to Choji and gave a tired smile.

"Naruto."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Go sleep. I'll take stock of the situation and I'll give you a run down tomorrow." The blond wanted to hug him, but settled for following Choji and Shikamaru upstairs. As he followed them, he studied his classmates. Shikamaru seemed even more tired than normal, his ponytail disheveled and a few purple bruises scattered over his face. Choji had his left arm wrapped up and he had the slightest limp as he walked the steps. They both were worried about their sensei, that much was as clear as day due to the dark circles under their eyes.

"Naruto," Choji asked softly, "how did you get to Wave? With Gato's patrols on the watch, boats can't get through." _'Damn. Now I'm curious.'_ Naruto groaned at hearing the unfamiliar name.

"Kakashi-sensei and I water walked across the ocean with a boat load of chakra pills." Naruto replied before yawning as they walked from the stairs into second floor hallway and into the shared room. Shikamaru made a strangled noise and whipped around.

"Kami, Naruto. You and your sensei are troublesome. Chakra pills are dangerous when the effects wear off. Go to bed." Choji immediately unrolled his futon and practically pushed him onto it once hearing Shikamaru's words. Naruto gave a grumble of annoyance as he landed on his pack. Twisting, he pulled it from his back and set it beside him carefully before removing most of his armor. _'This is so comfortable.'_ He sighed inwardly. Choji handed him a blanket and Naruto immediantly curled up on the futon and within a few minutes fell asleep.

* * *

He was dead tired, but as the back up commander, he had to get information. But he'd make it quick. Kakashi had not thought about how rusty he'd gotten retiring from the ANBU. Running had cost him a crazy amount of chakra and a great need for chakra pills which wouldn't have happened when he'd been in ANBU. The girl, Ino, who he knew to be a Yamanaka from her hair and eyes, was nervous and frightened. She'd probably never experienced anything like this before - a true mission. The woman Tsunami looked to be a more stern woman but faintly nervous around the shinobi. Probably Tazuna's daughter.

The boys - a Nara and Akimichi - had fought or at least tried to, from their injuries.

"Yamanaka-san, give me a quick report of the mission from the first fight onwards." He said curtly. The blond genin fumbled for a minute before collecting herself carefully.

"We...we were halfway to Wave when we were attacked by two Kiri missing-nin. Asuma-sensei took out one and Shikamaru and Choji took out the other. Tazuna-san was the one they were after and I thought we should go back but Asuma-sensei said shinobi should complete the mission. Then we got on a boat and Tazuna-san started telling us what was wrong here in Wave."

Kakashi nodded for her to go on. So he was going to find out why the people here were so fearful. "There's this really bad man here, named Gato. He has his men kill and hurt people here and they starve and they can't fish too often or Gato will kill them...and it's awful!" She burst out. Glancing at Tsunami who was a bit pale looking now, he could see that she too had met hardship with this Gato man. "After we got off the boat and walked for a while, Shikamaru nearly hit a rabbit and then Asuma-sensei made us fall on the ground and a sword as tall as Asuma-sensei came over our heads."

The blonde's eyes were starting to water. "The man came out of nowhere and they started fighting and I thought I was going to _die_...They started using different jutsu, the missing-nin said he was from Kiri and he used a lot of water jutsu. Asuma-sensei nearly died when he got trapped in a water sphere and Shikamaru and Choji made a plan and managed to get sensei from the sphere. They started fighting again until senbon hit the Kiri-nin in his neck and sensei said he was dead.

"Another shinobi who said he was a hunter-nin came and took him away and Asuma-sensei collapsed. We got here, to Tazuna's house and sensei's patched up okay." Ino sniffled and wiped her eyes faintly, clenching her fists. Kakashi blinked. The girl needed lessons in giving reports, but he got the information he needed. _'How could Asuma be so stupid? I know he hates Hokage-sama, but once mission parameters were overreached, they should have gone back to Konoha! His genin could have died.'_

Giving the lightest sigh and trying not to fall out, he said,

"Naruto and I walked for a quarter of a mile and saw no sign of any sort of set traps. As backup mission commander, until Asuma gets back on his feet, I'm in charge. I want you and your teammates setting up traps close to the house. Besides that, where is your client?" The Yamanaka balked and looked down at her feet.

"He...he left to go check something with the other builders." There was a hint of shame and nervousness in her voice when she replied.

"And none of you thought to go with him?" _'For the love of Kami...'_ He growled inwardly. _'Asuma really didn't teach them anything!'_ She flinched and snapped,

"I'm not team leader! What was _I_ supposed to do?!"

"Excuse me, Hatake-san?" Choji Akimichi stared at him nervously with a sharper glint to the Nara boy's eyes. "Um, Shikamaru and I had Naruto go to sleep. He's really tired. Why is Ino screaming?" At that, the blond looked ready to scream louder, growing red faced and moving toward him with a balled fist.

"Enough." At his cold tone, all three genin froze. "You are supposed to be shinobi, not schoolyard brats out for a field day. This is a real mission that someone possibly will be killed on. You should have traps set around the forest and area surrounding the house. There are none. At least one of you should be out watching the client, no matter how badly beaten you are - there is no one. If the bridge builder dies, your mission fails. If you fail, Konoha gets no payment and our reputation falls. Our reputation falls, there is no more missions or source of income and Konoha falls apart."

Hearing this made the genin look disgusted and ashamed. "Nara, your clan is smart. I don't care if you are lazy - you should have enough smarts to have traps set and someone on watch, _at least_." This made the boy frown harshly. "Now, as I told Yamanaka-san, I am the commander until Asuma gets back to health. All three of you will be setting traps around the area. But before you have started that, a pair of you will now go out and find the client and bring him here. He will remain here unless he is working on the bridge for the next day and a half. Understood?"

His cold words shocked them, that was as clear as day. Slowly, the three nodded. "A verbal response is required, as Asuma should have taught you. All shinobi higher in rank than you receive a verbal answer unless the mission calls for otherwise."

"Hai, Hatake-san." The trio chorused with now dull expressions.

"And before you leave, as I should not have to tell you; carry at least two holsters of kunai and shuriken with you. Do not go around attracting too much attention. Nara-san, Akimichi-san, you will go to find the client. You have an hour and a half to complete this extra little side mission you have created for yourselves."

There was a series of dull thuds as the boys went up the stairs and then carefully entered their room to grab their weapons and supplies before they came back down. Kakashi turned to Ino and she turned from him to stare at the floor. "Yamanaka-san. Do you have weapons?"

"Yes." She replied, glancing at Choji who strapped on a kunai holster.

"Are your weapons ready for combat use?" She licked her lips.

"Some of them are."

"While the boys are gone, I want you to sharpen your weapons and keep a look out. If they aren't back in an hour and a half, knock on the door to wake me up." The Nara's dark eyes met his own.

"Why are you so troublesome about our weapons right now?" He asked as he pulled a shuriken holster to his hip. Kakashi sighed. He just wanted some damned rest. Was that too much to ask?

"Because I'm quite sure that Zabuza is still alive." The Yamanaka and Akimichi went pale white. The Nara looked away, his brows tighter in being drawn together.

"W-why?!" Ino gasped, her pupiless eyes wide.

"Senbon are not made for killing. A hunter-nin would have taken the head then and there and immediately burned the body. A true hunter-nin probably wouldn't have taken the entire body or used senbon." The Akimichi gulped loudly. "You have your tasks to complete. Get going." There was no pity in his voice. Just the tone of orders being given. The genin scattered to their tasks with thin panic on their faces.

* * *

When he reached upstairs with a spare futon in hand, he entered the room where Asuma was. The dark haired Sarutobi lay on the futon with even breathing. A very cautious, close up look showed that he was suffering heavy chakra exhaustion, a diagonal gash that was bandaged from shoulder to elbow and like the Nara, a huge mottling of purple and deep yellow bruises across his face and practically any other skin showing.

He supposed that his fellow jonin got away with very little despite who he had faced. It could've been his throat Zabuza gashed instead, his life's blood soaking the earth crimson. That would've been a nightmare to clean up and report. _'Okay. I've gotten too little sleep.'_ The silver haired jonin thought with a twitch of his lips as his mouth threatened to yawn. It had been a long day and a half, especially for Naruto. As much energy as his blond genin had, it wasn't enough to keep him running all day, night and until 3:30 pm the next day (the time they had gotten to Tazuna's house).

Setting the futon in the opposite corner of the room, he placed his pack next to it and stripped away most of his armor. The instant he lay down, he thought he was in heaven. _'Those brats better get back here in time. If I have to get up and find them, it won't be pretty.'_ He couldn't help but yawn this time as he fell asleep.


	5. Training And Opening Eyes

**MINI RANT SO READERS CAN UNDERSTAND THE STORY:**

 **I don't understand why Kakashi allowed for Sakura to keep hitting and demeaning Naruto. Isn't that physical abuse or something? And Sakura and Sasuke to demean Naruto through what I see as practically verbal abuse? I thought Kakashi would have stopped them because IT LITERALLY SAYS IN THE NARUTO WIKI:** "An abuse of one's teammates is the only thing that can makes Kakashi cast aside his normally stoic demeanor, causing him to attack without mercy or his usual sense of sportsmanship." **Which means he should have totally kicked their asses for that because they were somewhat of a team. I would have. I claim that as abuse and here is where it takes me.**

 **This is AU, some OOC and I do not own Naruto.**

 **Please review.**

 **My apologies for taking so long on the chapter and the fact that it is so short. It's been a busy few weeks. I went to the Kentucky Derby, had a number of tests in various classes and enough homework that I thought I was carrying a 50 pound rock instead of a book bag.**

* * *

Naruto woke up half as sore and tired as when he went to bed. Half a second later, he remembered where he was and what he was doing. It took him ten minutes to properly get up and roll up the futon. Glancing around the room, he noted that the futon around him had been rolled up in a different way than earlier and grumbled inwardly about not noticing the others coming in and leaving.

The blond went through the usual motions of removing his clothes and changing - just after he made sure the door was locked. It would be weird if one his classmates walked in on him, especially Ino. He strapped on his armor and made sure his kunai and shuriken were set along with his scrolls before securing his pack behind Choji's futon and leaving the room. Naruto twitched at the lingering soreness but shrugged it off as he stepped downstairs where he heard the others and Kakashi-sensei. He'd had worse.

When he got downstairs, entering the kitchen where Tsunami was making food, he glanced around the table. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and Kakashi-sensei sat at the table next to a grumpy looking black haired boy with dark eyes and overalls. If it weren't for the fact the boy's mother (99% sure it was Tsunami) was from Wave and he knew that specifically, he'd almost would have thought the kid was a bastard Uchiha. Ignoring that irritating fact, he made sure to catch Kakashi's eye before he sat down. Ino stared at him with confusion.

"What are you doing decked out in that?" Naruto ignored her as he took a small bowl of rice. _'I can eat rations and whatever I brought with me. They already have enough on their plates without trying to feed two extra mouths.'_ He thought as he ate quickly, reminded of Zabuza and the mission. _'Kakashi-sensei looks like shit. Damn. Thank Kami for the fox. I don't think we're doing much training.'_ "Naruto. Naruto. Naruto." Ino insisted, going to try and poke him.

"Yamanaka-san. Please stop trying to poke my genin. We both are still tired and Naruto is prone to lashing out with kunai instead of words in the morning." That made him snort faintly. He also caught the way Ino flinched and immediately shut up when Kakashi-sensei talked to her directly. _'I wonder what happened after I fell asleep. Oh, yeah...'_

He flicked his fingers in standard Konoha signs very carefully at an angle where his sensei could see them. *What is the situation?* Kakashi replied, *After breakfast. Outside.* Naruto blinked as he took another bite of rice. *Understood.* Once he was finished with his rice, he got up, washed his bowl and set it aside to dry. There was the noise of chairs scraping the wooden floor as Kakashi-sensei ordered the others to follow them outside. Naruto walked past Ino and Shikamaru and followed Kakashi out the door, in a line like ducklings after their mother.

They walked a bit from the house and into the forest, with Ino and Choji quietly pointing out to Kakashi and Naruto where they had set their traps. The blond took in everything and noted that when they tried, they could at least set up traps properly. Naruto paused when Kakashi stopped in a clearing. "Stop here." He stopped next to Shikamaru who stood slouched, with a half-lidded and bored expression. Ino seemed faintly nervous about something and Choji glanced between Kakashi-sensei and the rest of his rice ball which the Akimichi quickly gulped down in quick bites.

Kakashi faced them with a serious expression and Naruto recalled what his sensei had said on their way to Wave. He'd be giving the other genin training and teaching him ninjutsu. But with the way that Kakashi-sensei was looking, was it really alright to let him use a kage bushin to train? Or was he doing something else? But he dutifully listened as the silver haired jonin spoke. "I will be teaching you how to be utilize the shinobi arts. From what you have told me, Zabuza was hit with senbon in the neck. It should take him at least ten days to recover. During that time, I will be beating skills into you."

Choji gulped and Naruto felt light pity for his classmates. Kakashi-sensei was a slave driver when he wanted to be, but at least no one could complain of the results. Shikamaru muttered a troublesome under his breath and Ino looked as if she was going to have a heart attack.

"When do you think Asuma-sensei will be waking up?" Choji asked, his eyes holding worry. Kakashi turned to him.

"Asuma has heavy chakra exhaustion. Due to the chakra exhaustion, I'd say he'll be awake in two or three days." All three genin gave a low groan and Naruto winced sympathetically for them. But at least they'd put up a better fight than when they arrived. "Now, how much chakra control do you three have?" Ino spoke up first.

"I know the leaf sticking exercise. I've heard about the tree walking exercise." She admitted.

"I know the leaf sticking exercise." Choji said.

"I know the leaf sticking exercise." Shikamaru answered, eyeing the jonin with a suspicious glare. Naruto knew what was coming.

"Well then. Today, you are learning the tree walking exercise. Once you manage to master that, I will teach you the water walking exercise." Kakashi replied with an eye smile. Ino made a face.

"But I'll get dirty and tired."

"So? Everyone who trains properly should." Ino's face was a mix of indignation and irritation. She squared her shoulders and set her hips with her lips pursed.

"I didn't ask to get tired and dirty and lied to on a screwed up C-rank mission. I nearly died and I got bruises on my back and arms and mud in my mouth."

"I hope you don't mean to get pity from me." The man looked at her coldly, suddenly frigid. The blond girl shuffled back a step, well aware this was the attitude from the day before - and it was dangerous to her health. "You chose to be a shinobi. This is what shinobi do. We get tired and dirty, be it with dirt or blood. We starve and fight and lie and kill. No one cares if you are dirty and tired during a life or death battle in a mission. In the end, you won't either. In a life or death battle, the only thing you'll be really thinking is - how do I kill this man to complete my mission? - what type of jutsu can sneak me past this shinobi so I can slice through his spine or throat or slap an explosive tag on his back? - how many more weapons do I have on me so I can set a trap or bury one in his skull?"

Giving a sigh, Naruto halfheartedly listened to Kakashi's lecture. All three of his classmates' faces had horror and traces of disgust on them. He'd already heard a similar lecture from his sensei - not that he didn't understand what he was getting into when he signed up for the Academy. After running for Aoi and others like him, you got a large sour taste of reality. Gangs and casinos hated when runners screwed up their work. He'd seen several die from beatings or being attacked in an alley.

"Now, let's get going. You have a tree to climb." Kakashi tossed them kunai. "Use the kunai to mark how far up you stop. Channel chakra into your feet and try to stick to the tree. If you use too little chakra, you will fall and won't stick. Too much chakra and you will be pushed away from the tree and the area you stepped on will break. You have to find the balance. Get going." With that, Naruto watched his classmates slowly go to pick up the kunai and separate to a tree.

He heard his sensei come over to him. "Debriefing. Come on." The blond was led farther back from the center of the clearing to the outer edge where they sat on a pair of old tree stumps. Naruto listened carefully as Kakashi began to speak. "The situation is that a man named Gato has taken control of Wave and keep people here in oppression. I believe he hires missing-nin like the Demon Brothers and Zabuza to kill and do his dirty work, besides the regular thugs. It also seems that Zabuza has an accomplice, one who wields senbon like an expert medic-nin."

"Gato is trying to kill Tazuna for building the bridge, which would essentially reopen trade routes and get Gato out of business. As for Asuma, he has intense chakra exhaustion and has a deep wound on his arm. Unfortunately, I don't know any medical ninjutsu." There was a sigh from Kakashi and then he continued. "Now, we'll keep the same plan as before; I train Asuma's brats with a kage bushin starting tomorrow and I'll give you training in elemental ninjutsu as well. Until Asuma wakes up, I'm in charge."

"Kakashi-sensei, who's watching Tazuna?" Naruto asked, thinking about the bridge. It was bad that he might be out there alone.

"I made sure that he understood that he can't leave anywhere until mid tomorrow. It gives me time to regain the rest of my chakra and I can keep an eye on the drunk." Naruto raised an eyebrow. He had smelled traces of old sake in the upstairs hallway, but he hadn't expected the man to be a drunk, especially with a grandson around. "I, unfortunately due to the threat, will have to leave you a kage bushin while I watch Tazuna."

"If Asuma has chakra exhaustion, I might be able to help him. I have been working on chakra transfer and I'm good at it." He watched the silver haired jonin think hard for a few minutes, feeling a bit put out but understanding why Kakashi had to leave him a kage bushin.

"Perhaps. But if you do, it'll only be a little. I want you to be able to train." Naruto nodded.

"Hai. Should I do it now?"

"No. Start transferring chakra a little after dinner, if not tomorrow morning."

"Hai."

* * *

The next five hours had Naruto and Kakashi switch between giving advice to Asuma's genin, eating a quick lunch, going over basic kata with the tanto and sparring. The one closest to gaining achievement over the tree walking exercise was actually Shikamaru. Naruto put it down to the fact that the Nara clan had to be precise with chakra for their shadow jutsu - and that Kakashi had scared him with the rough speech and icy demeanor.

The worst off was Choji, probably because his clan had to have large amounts of chakra and he ended up either putting too much and breaking the tree or putting too little and sliding off. It was slow going, but he was gaining more control. Ino was closer to Shikamaru than Choji in means of control and steadily gaining. She had fallen off at the beginning because she set too little chakra into the technique. Her purple clothes were mud splattered and grass stained, but she kept from complaining, most likely from fear of Kakashi-sensei.

A silver blur sliced near his face and Naruto was drawn back into the fight. He flickered forward with chakra enhanced speed and made two swift cuts at Kakashi's chest before dodging sideways and jabbing at a cloth covered throat. The only chakra used in this fight was to enhance speed or limbs; it was about learning to fight without using jutsu. For his troubles, he got cut on the arm.

Naruto inwardly hissed at the pain. It wasn't even deep, but with it being on his knife arm, it would be harder to keep the tanto steady and keep his grip. In short, it would be more annoying. The blond kicked hard and slammed a leg onto Kakashi's leg and used it to propel himself up to stab at the silver haired sensei's heart. The flat of the other tanto knocked his own sideways and a fist to his stomach made him nearly double over. Coughing lightly, Naruto twisted sideways as the tanto was thrust at his head. _'Damn it. I know I've only just started fighting with a tanto, but it's not as different from fighting with a kunai! I still can't scratch him!'_ He grumbled inwardly as he found his legs being knocked out from under him and the blade at his throat.

"Dead."

The blond lay panting on the ground, eyes narrowed at the ground. He winced lightly at the sting of his wound before nodding and getting to his feet. "You've grown better, even if it is a little. Get your cut bandaged. We'll stop sparring for tonight." Kakashi-sensei said and Naruto gave a light smile at the compliment before removing his armor and taking out one of his storage scrolls. He took out some antihistamine cream and a short length of bandage, thinly smearing on the ointment and wrapping his arm.

Once that was taken care of, he waited as Kakashi stood, seemingly thinking. What he said next was unexpected, even for him; "I want your input on how to train the genin. My methods are fine - if you're in the ANBU or my genin." Naruto snorted faintly; inwardly he was shocked and slightly amused. "But putting them through the same training could only hurt them and we can't have that when our enemies are so close at hand."

"You really want _me_ to try and help you figure out how to teach them?"

"I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't." There was a sort of careful understanding that passed between them. Kakashi-sensei was allowing him to make choices - ones that could ultimately work with or against them in any upcoming battles against Zabuza and his companion. It was the sharing of responsibility in a very clear cut way, but Naruto was uncertain about whether he would choose correctly. Even if it was just choosing what to teach, it was something that he realized was a chunin's duty and he took a breath to calm himself. _'It's like showing sensei street ways. Choose the skills that would help most in the situation.'_

"Do you want me to give you a few suggestions now?" Naruto asked, his mind scrambling to remember what his classmates specialized in for their clans and what they knew from the Academy. There was a moment of silence before he glanced at Kakashi. He saw the man was smiling faintly under his mask and glared halfheartedly.

"No. That would be foolish to expect you to come up with a training method in a few hours. Tell me at our normal time tomorrow, here."

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto replied, his mind flashing as he began to draw up plans. He was dismissed still thinking about the plans for the other genin.

Going into the house, he gave a glance at Tsunami before heading back to Shikamaru and Choji's room. _'They obviously need to do water walking.'_ Naruto thought with a frown as he sat down. _'I don't want to overload them so that they can't learn everything. So they need something they can all learn, since it would waste time to give them individual attention.'_ He grabbed out a piece of paper and began to scribble out quick jutsu and other basics. Naruto had to cross out things when he realized that some things Choji couldn't learn fast enough or Shikamaru wouldn't put too much effort into.

In the end, Naruto gave a half grimace. The training was all right, but he might've done better if the group had a tiny bit more time. The list was thus: water walking, fighting blind, increasing speed, shunshin, bandaging wounds, Futon: Reppusho and Katon: Karyudan. Fighting blind was for Zabuza, who was a master of silent killing; increasing their speed was good in general; shunshin was good for getting out of the way of the senbon he was told the accomplice loved; bandaging wounds was in case one of them got injured and the jonin or himself were unavailable; the futon was to scatter any senbon the accomplice might aim and if they managed to get close enough, the katon would cause a distraction and heavy burn damage.

It was an all right training plan. There was a knock on the door and Naruto looked up as Tsunami entered, her blue-black hair drawn back. The smells of rice and fish entered the room from the hallway and he realized it was dinner time already. _'Has it really been that long?'_

"Naruto-san. I made food. Kakashi-san and the others are inside as well." Giving a light sigh, Naruto nodded.

"Thank you, Tsunami-san." He stretched lightly before getting up and putting away his notes. Tsunami was already walking down the stairs when he started following her to the table. When he reached the table, he got his first glimpse of Tazuna. The man was older with a large gray beard, dark eyes with glasses and a sleeveless green shirt. He drank what smelled of strong tea as he quietly talked with Kakashi-sensei over a few rolled up pieces of paper.

Again, the grumpy black haired boy sat at the table, already picking at his meager rice and fish. Tsunami sat between him and Tazuna, giving him worried glances. However, the other three genin were what caught his attention. To put it frankly, they looked like hell warmed over. _'So Kakashi-sensei started training them harder. I wonder what he did. They probably finished the tree walking exercise and thought they were going to get away with just that. Looks like he started on taijutsu, from those bruises on Ino's face.'_ Ino had several dappling purple and yellow bruises over her cheekbones, her neat blonde hair was messy and scattered.

Shikamaru was favoring his left arm and Choji would keep leaning to his right side, keeping his weight off of his left side. When Ino whipped her head up to look at him, she stared at him for a second before snapping,

"How in the world do you train like that?! I think he nearly killed me!" Tazuna, Tsunami and the boy glanced at her in a bit of worriedness and surprise. Naruto snorted and took a seat where Tsunami had set him out a plate. He took a couple of swift bites before answering with a light grin that made Ino narrow her eyes.

"You think that was a hard workout? If anything, Kakashi-sensei went really easy on you guys because he didn't want you to be injured simply from training. I do maybe three to five times that. Every day." Ino looked as if someone had told her Sasuke liked Sakura and proclaimed his everlasting love. Shikamaru made a hilarious face that made it look like he had a particularly sour lemon in his mouth. Choji had turned white, blanching.

"Who cares how hard or long you train?" Naruto tilted his head to watch the little boy who had spoken. There was only disgust, slight anger and a sort of sorrow trapped in his black eyes. Kakashi-sensei had also turned to look at the boy, along with Ino, Choji and Shikamaru. "Gato will kill you anyway. You'll just die!" Ino's face had taken a very faint shade of pale as she listened. _'Is she cowed by the thought of a powerful civilian?'_ Naruto wondered curiously with disbelief, before turning back to the boy.

"Hush, Inari." Tsunami said, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she lightly scolded her son. The boy - _Inari_ \- Naruto corrected himself, merely shrugged her off.

"No!" Inari snapped back. "Let the stupid ninjas hear it! They're all gonna die! Gato's gonna string them up and kill them! Doing their dumb training isn't going to help!" Naruto wanted to laugh. An Academy student could probably beat this Gato man if it came to a one-on-one fight! He was merely a civilian; and one who would last all five seconds on the underground streets of Konoha. If that. "Besides, they don't even care about us! All ninjas are only in it for the money and I bet they don't even know anything about having a hard life like us!" At that, Naruto got icy. Icy pissed. Icy mad.

"We don't know anything about having a hard life?" Naruto was aware his voice was cold. Inari turned to glare at him. "First off, boy, have you ever tried to fight Gato, then? No? Then shut your mouth. You sit here and cower in fear, hiding yourselves away like rats from a dog. The only brave one here, I see, is your grandfather for having the guts to come get us all the way in Konoha when he could've been killed. Secondly, a fucking Academy student could send a kunai through the man's throat and he'd still be dead. Shinobi are killers, trained killers, most unlike those thugs Gato has probably hired." His voice grew sharper.

"And, most importantly, I don't know about a hard life? They," he waved his hand at Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, "might not know about much of a hard life, but I do. Have you ever had to dig through trash cans and starve till you can see your ribs and count them? Have you ever been beaten so hard you've heard your own bones crunch and seen your bones stick through your skin? Had people try to carve out your guts with broken sake bottles while you choke on your own blood?" The boy had gone a pasty white, tears of anger and shock starting to gather in his eyes. He heard gasps from the others in the room but ignored them. "Don't ever try to lecture _me_ on a hard life!" The blond spat before sliding from his chair and leaving before his sensei could say anything.


	6. AUTHOR'S NOTE (OH NO! NOT ANOTHER!)

**Hey.**

 **I have one question. Should I take down 'Airing Dirty/Clean Laundry'? I don't particularly care one way or the other, but I just want to know some opinions. I swear I won't freak out on you. ;)**

 **Anyway, I post again within the month or two. It's been a hectic summer and half the time I had no internet connection. I have to get caught up.**

* * *

 **Quick and short spoiler:**

Naruto snarled as he halted to a stop a little ways away from the clearing where they had been training earlier. He knew he shouldn't have lost his temper, but the brat had no damned right to say that! The kid lived in poverty only when Gato had taken over; he still had family and he had small, but seemingly consistent meals! He turned and slammed a fist onto the thick trunk of an old oak. Naruto hardly felt the tiny sting on his gloved hand that accompanied his punch and repeated it in his raw frustration.

Knowing that his anger and beating his hand and/or the tree trunk until it splintered wouldn't get him anywhere, the blond took a few breaths and sat against the tree trunk. He slowed his breathing and counted in his head for a few minutes while staring at the faintly appearing, glittering stars in the nearly complete darkness. After another second, he made a kage bushin and had it set traps before dispelling. No use in getting scolded by Kakashi-sensei for the same mistakes of Asuma-san's team. Naruto slowly dozed off, his steady breathing lulling him to sleep.

The loud slamming thud of something heavy near him woke him. Naruto was on his feet nearly instantly, a kunai from his pouch, familiar in his hand. He remembered he had set traps and thought that one of his traps had been sprung; a couple of kage bushin flitted out to check the trap and another two went to search his small perimeter.

* * *

 **Like I said, short. Hope you enjoyed it.**


	7. AUTHOR'S NOTE (OH GOD! NOT MORE!)

**Hey.**

 **OK.**

 **STORY IS OFFICIALLY ON HIATUS DUE TO SCHOOL WORK (THY NAME IS HELL) AND A SERIES OF PROJECTS. I DO SAY THAT THE CHAPTER IS HALF WAY DONE BUT WITH THE REST OF THE CHAPTER, I HAVE MASSIVE WRITER'S BLOCK. TROUBLESOME, YEAH?**

 **FUNNY THING FOR THE MONTH:**

 **MY SISTER AND I IRRITATE THE HELL OUT OF MY MOTHER BECAUSE I SAY "ETERNAL!" AND MY SISTER GOES "EXPLOSION!" AND WE DO IT OVER AND OVER. I THINK WE DROVE HER NUTS WHEN WE DID IT FOR TWENTY MINUTES ON OUR WAY TO JACKSONVILLE. (SNICKER)**

 **BYE BYE. ;)**


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